MP seeks to double sentences for child sex offenders

PARLIAMENT will soon start reviewing laws regarding the punishment of child sex abuse offenders.

According to the Chairman of the House Legal Affairs Committee, Ionas Nicolaou of DISY, the penalties for such crimes are currently way too low and he has prepared a bill to change that.

Nicolaou’s proposal comes hot on the heels of a bill by the Justice Ministry, which provides tougher sentencing for sex crimes against adults, but no changes for child sex abuse offenders.

“I have prepared a law proposal regarding an amendment of the penal code, so that penalties for crimes that have to do with the sexual abuse of minors are increased and in some cases doubled,” Nicolaou explained yesterday.

“The Justice Ministry’s bill only requests the increase of penalties for the sexual abuse of adults and not minors. This needs to be regulated,” he added.

“For example, for the sexual abuse of a child over the age of 13, we recently had a penalty of three years, while the sexual abuse of an adult was punished with 12 years. This is unacceptable.”

Furthermore, the DISY deputy is seeking an increase in penalties for sexual crimes carried out on minors from people close to their family environment, such as relatives and teachers.

“Penalties today are too low and they need to be reviewed,” he pointed out. “It is not just important for the courts to impose stricter punishments, but equally significant for the penalties provided by law to be higher, so that they leave margin for courts to impose tougher sentences.”

Nicolaou said the issue would be discussed at Parliament soon after it has returned from its summer recess.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.