Transparency International Macedonia opposes the amnesty of the perpetrators of crimes related to corruption, provided by the draft law-amnesty law submitted to Parliament of Republic of Macedonia by the MP Pavle Trajanov
22.12.2015 Transparency International Macedonia expresses their concern regarding the draft law of the amnesty law submitted by MP Pavle Trajanov, that has already entered in the parliamentary procedure. It derives from the fact that Article 2, paragraph 1, item 3, 4 and 5 from the draft law anticipates:
– The convicted persons ,who have been sentenced to one year and that are perpetrators for Receiving bribe, Article 357 of the Criminal Code and Giving bribe Article 358 of the Criminal Code are released by the 33% of the unjustified part of the sentence ;
– The convicted persons- perpetrators of crimes sentenced of single imprisonment of one to ten years to be released of 25% of the unjustified part of their sentence. This includes the persons who have been convicted of abuse of official position and authority and other forms of corruption.
– The convicted persons-repeat offenders of the criminal offenses listed in item 3 (persons convicted of Giving bribe and Receiving a bribe) to be released by 10% of the unjustified part of their sentence.
We believe that this legal decision will harm, by now the difficult fight against corruption in the Republic of Macedonia. Although, the proposer in his reasons for adoption states that “experts and the general public have a number of comments to a selective approach to the prosecution of perpetrators of crimes, adopting the court decisions without the support of evidence, decisions under political elite pressure and other centers of influence, which imposes the need for correction of “justice,” these allegations must be proved in order to be considered valid, and not to be a reason for adopting the law.
The legitimizing of this provision opposes the principles and recommendations of GRECO (Group of States against Corruption), according to which the Republic of Macedonia as a member state commits to provide mechanisms for the punishment of perpetrators of crimes related to corruption and does not allow for perpetrators to escape the punishment for what they have done.
Transparency International Macedonia believes that the provision of Article 2 paragraph 1 item 3, 4 and 5 of the draft law of the amnesty law is a step towards legalization of corruption in the Republic of Macedonia and it is against its adoption. Without going further into the other legal provisions of the draft law, we strongly oppose in adopting of any legal decisions that will provide amnesty of the corruption, even more the amnesty of the repeat offenders of crimes related to corruption, especially considering the general situation of this occurrence in our country.
