SaS to Come Up with Draft Legislation to Help Women Experiencing Violence

Bratislava, March 11 (TASR) - The opposition Freedom and Solidarity (SaS) party will come up with several pieces of draft legislation to help women experiencing violence, female SaS MPs told a news conference on Tuesday. SaS would also like to promote 'private prosecutions' in which victims of violence could take the case to court even in situations in which law-enforcement agencies did't act. "It's somewhat of a revolutionary idea with regard to our procedural rules, but it is viable, as show by practice in other countries, precisely in cases in which the state is simply incapable," said MP Maria Kolikova (SaS). According to Kolikova, penal codes should be amended. SaS would like to incorporate a new definition of rape in them and define the crime of domestic violence so that such violence is not qualified as a mere misdemeanour. The education of police officers and their specialisation would be instrumental in effective investigation as well, she added. MP Martina Bajo Holeckova (SaS caucus) pointed out that according to surveys, 11 percent of women in Slovakia experienced violence from their partners last year, while the European average is 5 percent. Only 15 percent of women are able to turn to the police or other authorities. There are no statistics as to how many of them file criminal complaints or ultimately achieve justice, said Bajo Holeckova. According to her, the perpetrators usually receive just a light sentence. She stressed that only 4 percent of rapists are sent to prison. In the past five years, the police have recorded 125 cases in which women were murdered, with roughly one in three being killed by their partners. ko/df