The commission that was preparing the new Criminal Code in Ukraine has ceased its work. This was announced by Mykola Khavroniuk, a member of the Commission on Legal Reform, on his Facebook page.
According to him, for almost six years, a special working group of Ukrainian experts worked within the commission to develop a draft of a new Criminal Code. The document was supposed to replace the current code, adopted back in 2001.
As Khavronyuk noted, a draft of the new code was prepared and even presented to the public. It provided for a significant reform of the criminal law of Ukraine. In particular, it was proposed to change the system of classifying crimes: instead of three categories of severity — non-serious, serious and especially serious — nine levels should be introduced.
The draft also envisaged other approaches to punishments. For example, for crimes of the highest — ninth — level of severity, which include genocide or aggression, it was proposed to establish a penalty of up to 30 years of imprisonment or life imprisonment.
At the same time, the intentional murder of one person in the draft of the new code was classified as a crime of the seventh degree of severity with a penalty of 10 to 13 years of imprisonment. For comparison, the current Criminal Code provides for a sentence of 7 to 15 years of imprisonment for such a crime.
The draft also included new categories of crimes that are not in current legislation. Among them, in particular, criminal liability for human cloning.
At the same time, the new code has attracted considerable criticism among lawyers. Experts noted that the system of articles and classifications in the document is too complicated for practical application. According to the developers, in order to correctly use the norms, it was even proposed to create a special computer program that would help lawyers classify offenses.
According to Mykola Khavronyuk, the implementation of the project at the state level has been postponed for now. The main reason was the war and the overloading of the law enforcement system, prosecutor's office, and courts. Because of this, the authorities do not yet have the time or resources to implement a large-scale reform of criminal legislation.
