We are increasing the penalties, we are introducing higher prison sentences, and the effectiveness of the penal policy is not achieving the goal and is working under public pressure, university professor Gordan Kalajdziev believes about the amendments to the Criminal Code, which reduce the penalties for the acts of abuse of office, i.e. Article 353 and criminal association, i.e. Article 394.
“With prison sentences like those from the 19th century, with long prison terms, nothing is solved, on the contrary, the problems only increase, because our prisons are in catastrophically bad conditions. I am in favor of a complete change, the penal policy for all offenses of the Criminal Code should be reduced by one third. Now in practice, in anonymous cases, the courts use the suspended sentence a lot, which is not bad, but in publicly exposed cases, they judge under public pressure. It is all understandable, the public reacts to the long-term impunity of the officials for various abuses, but it is not the point to pour all the anger on the first subsequent case of abuse, as is the example now with the Oncology case. I am not defending anyone, but the actors in this case are also victims of the dysfunctional system that left them in a state of shock to commit the acts for which they are under investigation,” says Kalajdziev.
