Kery: Notion of New Penal Code Protecting Criminals a 'Blatant Stupidity'

Bratislava, February 6 (TASR) - MP Marian Kery (Smer-SD) in his speech to Parliament rejected the notion that changes to the Penal Code would protect criminals, calling it a "blatant stupidity". Parliament ended Tuesday's debate on the Penal Code bill with Kery's speech and is slated to continue the debate on Wednesday (February 7). According to Kery, no crime can remain unpunished, but the emphasis should be placed on preventing recividism, the ruination of familial ties and to grant motivation to perpetrators to start anew. "The only change to property-related crimes takes place with a mind to harmonise our punishments with, for instance, the Czech Republic, so as to have similar sentencing," said Kery. In response, MP Jan Hargas (PS) pointed out that Kery hadn't mentioned all the facts, seeing as the coalition amends the criminal damage classification in such a way that the crimes for which a perpetrator is sentenced to ten years in jail in the Czech Republic will be punishable in Slovakia with four years. "And what is in the Czech Republic subject to the statute of limitations after 15 years will be subject to limits of only 5 years in Slovakia," claimed Hargas. The debate, shortened to only 62 hours and with allocated time for individual caucuses, also saw a speech from Interior Minister Matus Sutaj Estok (Voice-SD), who took potshots against Progressive Slovakia for not organising protests during the era of the previous governments when Penta financial group co-owner Jaroslav Hascak was arrested and ex-police chief Milan Lucansky committed suicide in custody. MP Zuzana Stevulova (PS) told the minister that he's taking things out of context. "What you're doing is in reality the kidnapping of justice," she stated. MP Marian Caucik (KDH) responded that a large part of the minister's speech was nothing but a political campaign. mf/mcs