March 19, 2010

The National Assembly passed at the sitting on March 19, 2010, amendments to the Penal Code. MPs decided to diminish by one third court sentences in cases when the pretrial investigative phase was cut short. In the penal code, currently in effect, if the accused volontiers to accept the facts and evidence, gathered in the process, and to withhold questioning of witnesses and experts, the sentence was ruled below the minimum, prescribed for the offense. The amendment now allows the courts to diminish the sentence by one third when the confession of the accused is supported by the collected in the pre-trial proceedings evidence and stipulates that in these cases governing will be the Penal Code’s General Provisions. For instance a life sentence would be replaced by an imprisonment of 20-30 years. The court is given the discretion to choose between the lowest and highest statutory term.

Where there exist exceptional or numerous mitigating circumstances and even the lightest penalty, provided by law, seems too severe, the court might not impose it, bypassing the rule with art. 55 of the Penal Code, under which the imposed punishment may be set under the lowest limit, thus a life sentence replaced by imprisonment from 15 to 20 years; when the term of imprisonment has no low limit replaced with probation; and the probation by a fine of BGN 100 to 500.
The amendments regarding the decrease of sentences by one third has generated heated debate in the plenary hall. The oposition claimed that there will be problems with the application of this text and argued that defendants will avoid the procedure as not providing better incentives than those existing at the moment.