The Senate of the Republic will know this Monday, again, the project of domain forfeiture law and forfeiture of property that was returned to him from the Chamber of Deputies after it was unanimously approved by the 143 legislators present, but with dozens of modifications, above all removing aspects that could collide with the Constitution of the Republic such as retroactivity.
The deputies welcomed several proposals made by important sectors of the country, mainly businessmen who expressed their opinion to the legislators during a visit to Congress.
The project will return to the Upper House with important variations that the senators refused to remove when they approved it after the commission submitted a report with which only the ruling party agreed.
In addition to the issue of retroactivity, article 32 related to the complainants was modified, to sanction the complaints that after a sentence is proven to be false. In this case, those affected could take action against the complainant and the Public Ministry.
This article also included that the person who reports in bad faith and maliciously in order to cause damage will be punished with two to four years in prison and a fine of 50 minimum wages.
The deputies also eliminated from the law the incentive, which was 3% of the value of what was seized, which the senators approved would be given to those who denounced it, considering that this would motivate extortion and accusations without evidence.
Also, the deputies eliminated article 16 of the project, where the criteria to evaluate good faith were established.
One of those criteria of good faith established “that the apparent right or legal situation has in its external aspect all the conditions of real existence, in such a way that any prudent or diligent person cannot discover the true situation”.
According to the president of the Chamber of DeputiesAlfredo Pacheco, the approval of the project in the Lower House and the consensus achieved was also thanks to the senators, “who attended the consensus and studies at the last minute.”
This statement by Pacheco could imply that this Monday the piece could pass in the Upper House with the vote of all the parties, since for the remainder of the current legislature (it expires on July 26), if there is no will of the parties among the 32 senators or two thirds of them, the project could perish.
