Tougher sentencing on the cards for heinous crimes
In the wake of the killing of a young woman who was strangled at her home in front of her 11-month-old child by burglars this week, the government intends to increase the time that convicts spend in prison for heinous crimes, Justice Minister Konstantinos Tsiaras said on Thursday.
“The issue has already been discussed among the members of the Criminal Code monitoring committee, and there is an intention to toughen sentences, especially for heinous crimes, sex crimes [and] all those that have received a lot of publicity lately,” Tsiaras told Skai TV.
“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.
