Says a crime should be judged based on the type of impact it has on society as a whole
Foreigners who are caught committing a crime and who do not have their residency documents in order will be deported according to the new Criminal Procedural Code that President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner yesterday said the Executive will be sending to Congress today.
The bill, according to the information provided by the president, appears to take a more tough-on-crime stance that seems to echo earlier statements by Security Secretary Sergio Berni, who had proposed to extradite immigrants caught committing crimes.
The new code — applicable in BA City and across the country for federal crimes — will also consider the shock that an incident causes in society in order to determine sentencing and will not put the issue of recidivism, whether tougher punishment can be issued for repeat offenders, under debate.
Supreme Court Justice Eugenio Zaffaroni, and other legal experts, consider recidivism to be unconstitutional.
Zaffaroni led a drafting commission that sponsored the Penal Code overhaul earlier this year that now appears forgotten amid accusations from the opposition that it was too lenient on criminals.
When the president made reference to the societal shock of a crime, she was making a thinly veiled connection with the man on a motorbike carrying a pistol who tried to rob a Canadian tourtist.
“A criminal was free and that angered population,” the president said.
What the president seemed to be suggesting was that a crime that gets more media attention will receive a tougher punishment.
Fernández de Kirchner also explained that the new code — aimed at overhauling the current Criminal Procedural Code adopted in 1991 during Carlos Menem’s presidency — will give more power to prosecutors to speed up the criminal investigations.
Victims will also have a word in the procedures.
“They should know that they can report judges and prosecutors who do not move forward with the investigations,” the president said late yesterday night.
In what could be seen as new episode of a never-ending battle with the judiciary, Fernández de Kirchner yesterday blamed judges for releasing prisoners, spoiling the efforts of those who fight and arrest criminals, something that Berni is used to repeating. On March 1, when the president kicked off the legislative year, she followed a similar line, criticizing judges for releasing detainees.
“We do not want criminals who are arrested and then are released. We want them to be remanded in custody and we want the judiciary to take into account the shock to society their crimes caused. We want our society to feel safe. Recidivism will be considered because it is a social demand,” Fernández de Kirchner said.
A new, different Code
As the president yesterday explained, the Federal Criminal Procedural Code only affects a small portion of Argentine society. For example, the 60,000 people imprisoned in the country: 10,000 are in jail convicted for federal crimes and the rest are detained in provincial jails.
The president said that the reform of the Procedural Code was the result of a request from 205 judges but also from scholars, who want a better “administration of justice.”
“The current code establishes that the judge is the person who leads the investigation. If the judge wants to, he can delegate the probe to the prosecutor. If the judge does not want to investigate, he can shelve the investigation as well,” the president said. “Nothing happens to those who do not investigate.”
However, the president also vowed to punish judges and prosecutors who do not meet the deadlines. “If a judge gets three serious sanctions, he can be impeached. If the law that regulates prosecutors is modified, that will also apply to them,” Fernández de Kirchner highlighted.
A question of time
The president explained that the main purpose of the code is to shorten investigations and to make people feel they are obtaining justice. “This is a pending issue for democracy,” she said, also praising the bill: “This is a great progress in the fight against crime.”
According to the bill, judges and prosecutors will make decisions in public hearings. An investigation cannot take longer than a year. Sources from the Justice Ministry explained to the Herald that deadlines double when prosecutors are investigating serious crimes such as drug trafficking, human trafficking or crimes against humanity.
“Those who committed serious crimes will be convicted in less than 10 months and they will go to jail from the very first day,” the president said.
A day after opposition lawmakers said that the Kirchnerite administration was drafting a Criminal Procedural Code to protect officials who are facing charges of corruption, the president made it clear that ongoing cases will continue using the current code.
“We don’t want this to be the government’s code. This is our proposal,” Fernández de Kirchner said weeks after the opposition refused to debate the Civil and Commercial Code, also filing complaints in courts.
The president is determined to pass this new code before the end of the year.
Herald staff