What happens to the “lifelong opinion” in Greece, and why is this really not lifelong

Two lifelong terms is the punishment that has been issued The steering wheel pussypreviously unanimously plead guilty in deliberate murder their two younger daughters.

Life imprisonment is one of the most severe punishments for crimes In Greecehowever real meaning this term does not correspond to its name.

Etymologically, the term “lifelong” comes from the words “equal” and “life”, (“ίσος” and “βίος”), which means something equal to human life. In Greek criminal law it is now Higher individual penaltyafter the abolition of the death penalty in December 1993.

Practically The last death penalty was carried out on August 25, 1972. However, according to Article 105 of the Greek Criminal Code, This concept is conditionalthat is, those who are condemned to life imprisonment can be released if they left at least Twenty (20) years your punishment or eighteen (18) years, According to the law adopted in 2021, if they reached the age of 70. According to data published in September 2018, our country every year ranks first in terms of the number of life -sentenceds in the corresponding list of the Council of Europe.

Of the 9,000 prisoners in 2018, a thousand were sentenced to life imprisonment, which is a record. Of course, this number is large, and its ratio with severe crime indicators does not show that it is reduced. Compared to other European countries in the number of lifelong prisoners that year, the difference with Greece was significant, especially when you consider that in Sweden, Portugal, the Czech Republic and Austria there are no more than 40 life -convicts, while for all of Germany there are only 140.

With the new Criminal Code, the lifelong conclusion again became the only (inevitably threatening) punishment for some crimes, such as intentional murder in a calm mental state, qualified types of rape, as well as qualified types of robbery. But can life imprisonment really be lifelong? That is, can anyone convicted of this punishment spend the rest of his life in prison? The answer is definitely not, as the judicial practice of the European Court of Human Rights confirms, which recently in one of the cases against Hungary decided that prisoners should have hope that at some point they will again receive freedom, even if this happens after many years. Without this hope, a convicted person has no motivation for correction, that is, to repenting his criminal actions, which is the main sign of any liberal correctional system.

Moreover, the court in Strasbourg, taking a step forward, emphasized that if the member states of the Council of Europe do not have a legislative situation that allows the convict at some point in his life, be it through the institute Conditional release Or pardon, then this is inhuman and derogatory treatment of him, which is prohibited by Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights.

Taking another step forward European Court of Human Rights He stated that it was required to create a special mechanism that would guarantee a review no later than 25 years after the adoption of lifelong prison, with further reviews.

At the national level, in addition to the recognition of mitigating circumstances by the court for the “break” of life imprisonment, there is also an institution of parole, which is dominant in serving the sentence. According to this institute, convicted of life imprisonment cannot remain in a correctional institution for more than 20 years, while if he was sentenced to several punishments (for example, twice to lifelong), in any case he can be released if he has left for 25 years.

These terms are reduced if the convict demonstrates good behavior during his stay in a correctional institution, so that under life imprisonment, he can be released even after 18 years.

Source link