Revised Penal Code draft targets emerging crimes

The government is pushing for a review of the Penal Code to deal with the increasing new forms of crime. The anticipated revision seeks to amend the 1977 Penal Code to introduce stringent penalties for aggravated cases of assault. The revisions, which are yet to be tabled before Parliament, follow a public outcry on a number of issues that include the red tape in legal abortion procedures, overlapping penalties and obsolete provisions. Presenting the issues that informed the revision to judicial stakeholders in Kigali yesterday, Justice Minister Johnston Busingye said the significant rise in crime necessitated the review to address new trends of offences. “It is the prerogative of the Law Reform Commission and all stakeholders to provide sound scientific basis for penalties for all offences. “It is paramount to ensure periodic evaluation and to check beyond reasonable doubt that what the Parliament asked for was achieved,” he said. According to Busingye, key focus in the upcoming revision will evolve around economic crimes, environmental crimes, sexual offences, human trafficking, terrorism, drug trafficking, conspiracy, aiding and abetting, concealment and corruption-related crimes. “The same revision of the Penal Code will also ensure government handles categorically offences committed against women and children and offences related to public resources on top of observing appropriate drafting and translation,” he added. Should the Government maintain its current way of handling crimes, according to Busingye, some of the national development projects, including Vision 2020 and other progressive agendas, might be affected. “To match the required economic development speed, any country must have an effective penal code, effective law enforcement in an effective rule of law environment,” he said. According to law enforcers, stringent penalties will help reduce crimes such drug trafficking, violence, defilement and robbery which constitute more than 50 percent of all crimes. ACP Theos Badege, the head of Criminal Investigation Department at the Rwanda National Police, said the revision was timely and would help address investigation and prosecution challenges. “There is a need to draw a clear difference between crimes. A number of times, we report a crime and encounter difficulties, mainly due to reporting methods used or how a crime was defined before it is submitted to court,” he said. The challenges according, to John Gara, the chairman of the Law Reform Commission, are the same reasons that will enable the commission to revise the Penal Code in a bid to make it flexible and dynamic. “Due to provisions that say all crimes should be handled by the Penal Code, the assumption, was that such an organic law had to be one,” he said. The current Penal Code has at least 766 articles. Gara further stated that offences such as adultery might be handled by civil laws other than the Penal Code and that the revision will see whether attempt to commit suicide is an offense that needs to be punished or be addressed medically. Legal experts have also proposed tougher penalties for crimes against children and women, where if convicted of indecent assault against a child, for example, instead of being sentenced to five years, the jail term might be extended to 10 to 15 years. The same law might also see financial crimes handled in a standalone legal instrument, while formalities to procure a legal abortion might be cut down on top of having the final decision coming from specialised medical doctors other than court Judges. editorial@newtimes.co.rw

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Revised Penal Code draft targets emerging crimes