The amendments to the Criminal Law adopted in the Saeima on Thursday, June 6 specify that cruel or violent treatment of a person with whom the abuser is in the first or second degree of kinship, or against a spouse or ex-spouse, if this causes physical or mental suffering to the said person, may be punished with deprivation of liberty for a period of up to three years, temporary deprivation of liberty or probationary supervision.
Such punishment can also be applied if the abuser is or has been in a permanent intimate relationship with the victim, or with whom he has a joint household – long-term partners who are not married, for example.
"Domestic violence, including causing not only physical but also psychological suffering, is a significant problem. On May 1, the Istanbul Convention entered into force in our country, which advocates the prevention and combating of domestic violence. Amendments to the Criminal Law are one of the practical tools to protect the citizens of our country against violence," said Andrejs Judins, chairman of the Legal Commission responsible for the progress of the bill in the Saeima.
The amendments increased the penalties for a range of other violent offences, including willful bodily harm, threatening to commit murder or grievous bodily harm where there was reason to fear that the threat might be carried out, stalking, unlawful deprivation of liberty, kidnapping and others. It is intended that such crimes will no longer be subject to only community service or a fine but will involve a custodial sentence.
For leading a person to commit suicide or attempting to do so, by treating the victim cruelly or systematically humiliating their personal dignity, imprisonment for a period of up to five years can be imposed instead of the three years established so far. On the other hand, if the victim was materially or otherwise dependent on the perpetrator, the sentence can be for a period of up to seven years (until now - five).
There will also be a harsher punishment for animal cruelty. For such a criminal offense, as a result of which an animal has died or been mutilated, it will be possible to impose imprisonment for a period of up to five years (until now - three years), temporary deprivation of liberty or probation supervision, depriving the right to keep certain or all species of animals for a period of up to for five years (so far - three years). The animal cruelty changes were prompted by the evaluation of the collective submission of more than 31 thousand citizens demanding "Real prison sentences for animal torturers and murderers".
With the amendments, it is also intended to abandon the possibility of applying community service as a punishment for driving a vehicle under the influence of alcohol, narcotic, psychotropic, toxic or other intoxicating substances. Likewise, community service cannot be applied for refusing to take a drug test or leaving the scene of a traffic accident.
For using the identity of another person, if it causes significant damage to the state, local government or the person whose identity is used, or if it is done for the purpose of revenge, greed or blackmail, it is planned to be punished with imprisonment for a period of up to one year, temporary imprisonment, forced work, or with a fine.
If this is done in order to pass the Latvian language skill or other tests specified in the Citizenship Law, in order to create an opportunity for this person to obtain Latvian citizenship through naturalization, deprivation of liberty of up to two years can be applied instead of the currently prescribed one year.
