2024-07-07 12:58:11
FEATHERS.
The Occasional Commission for the Treatment of the Reforms derived from the Popular Consultation of the National Assembly, with the unanimous vote of its five members, decided to maintain the increase in penalties proposed in the text sent by the Executive, in relation to questions 2, 3, 4 and 5 of the Popular Consultation and Referendum of April 21, 2024, approved by the vote of the citizens.
Following the popular decision, an increase in penalties for these 10 crimes is contemplated. In this case, the Commission only proposed a modification to article 7 of the Project, in reference to crimes related to illegal mining and organized crime, at the request of assemblyman Stiven Ordóñez. In this case, a prison sentence of 16 to 20 years was included, which can be extended to 22 to 26 years, in the event of environmental damage.
The Commission also accepted the requests and opinions made by criminal law experts and the Attorney General’s Office. The latter entity presented several objections to the document.
The approved text will be returned to the National Assembly for debate and voting by legislators.
President Daniel Noboa had expressed his concern that the legislators had proposed a considerable reduction in penalties for certain crimes, such as organized crime or terrorism, contrary to the decision expressed at the polls by the majority of Ecuadorians.
“For whom are these legislators legislating? For the people or organized crime? What interests are they hiding? Why do they want to protect members of terrorist gangs?” said the Head of State in a statement, in which he also demanded that the Legislature speed up the approval of these laws in favor of security. /El Telégrafo