Ex Justice Minister León Arslanián praised the reform of the Criminal Procedural Code President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner submitted to Congress saying the new laws will provide people with more security.
“It is important, in order to give a more efficient answer to what is happening today. It shortens procedural times allowing that more than 1 percent of crimes that are committed end with a sentence,” Arslanián told reporters today.
In an interview with a radio show, the ex minister questioned the current system saying roles were «altered.»
“By nature, that who has to investigate in order to base an accusation against a defendant is the attorney (…). In the code of the current system that role is played by the judge whose function is another one: to judge, to guarantee that certain rules of the process are observed.”
“Processes will be faster, will take less time, less money will be spent to carry them out, there will be more efficiency in the penal justice (system) which is one of the ways to give community more security,” Arslanián pointed out and celebrated President Kirchner’s decision to resume a project that was first brockered by Raul Alfonsín’s administration, but which failed to be approved as the Radical Party did not have parliamentary majority back in 1987.
“It responds to a very old expectation, we are talking about more than 25 years and I think it is a fact to celebrate.”
Regarding the deportation of foreigners the new code includes, the ex federal minister considered “each country has the right to control its migrating phenomenon,” adding that “Argentina has a great generosity.”
The Code, according to León Arslanián, is currently two “rights-based” and “lax,” with preventive prison only being considered in escape and destruction of evidence cases. “This will be a matter of heavy discussion and controversy because it can collide with the presumption of innocence,” he explained.
Saying people get “shocked” when certain incidents are repeatedly shown – such as a recent case involving a so called “motochorro” who robbed a tourist and was then imprisoned for his criminal records – , Arslanián stated Ms. Kirchner was indeed seeking to provide “judges with certain instruments so that liberties are not that simple” to grant.
buenosairesherald.com