Government plans to increase actual sentence for heinous crimes

The Greek government intends to increase the actual term that convicts spend in prison for heinous crimes, Justice Minister Konstantinos Tsiaras said on Thursday.

The announcement came in the wake of the killing of a young woman who was strangled in front of her 11-month-old child by thieves who broke into her home in an Athens suburb and tied up her husband.

“The issue has already been discussed among the members of the Criminal Code monitoring committee, and there is an intention to toughen the sentences, especially for heinous crimes, sex crimes [and] all that have received a lot of publicity lately,” Tsiaras told TV channel Skai. “With the new legislation, anyone sentenced to life in prison will spend more years [incarcerated] than today.”

Specifying the scope of the legislative change, he said that criminals who receive a life sentence will have to spend a minimum of 20 years behind bars instead of the current 16 years. 

He said the new legislation will be presented in the summer.