The amnesty bill for the 80th anniversary of Victory has been submitted to parliament.
By the order of the President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko, the government has submitted a draft law "On Amnesty in Connection with the 80th Anniversary of the Victory in the Great Patriotic War" to the parliament. This was reported by BELTA in the press service of the head of state.
The draft law retains the approaches that have been successfully tested during past amnesties (over the last five years, four amnesties have been declared in Belarus). At the same time, a number of innovations are also provided.
The list of persons fully exempt from punishment and other measures of criminal liability has been supplemented by a new category of persons with certain diseases.
It is also proposed that previously unconvicted persons who have reached the age of 70 and have been sentenced to imprisonment for a term of up to six years inclusive be allowed to replace their punishment with a milder one in the form of restriction of freedom without being sent to an open-type correctional institution.
Instead of a full amnesty, a partial amnesty is established in the form of a one-year reduction of the sentence for persons convicted of negligent crimes that resulted in the death of a person.
For the majority of convicts, the main conditions for applying the amnesty provided for in the draft law are full compensation for the harm (damage) caused by the committed crime, as well as a positive characteristic of the person during the serving of the sentence.
According to preliminary estimates, nearly 8,000 convicts will fall under the amnesty.