House Approves 'Three Strikes' Rule, Changes Status of Cooperating Defendants

Bratislava, 11 December (TASR) – The Criminal Code will once again include the "three strikes and you are out" rule for petty theft, reinstating the criminal liability of repeat offenders for minor offences, as Parliament approved an amendment to the Criminal Code on Thursday. Additional changes were added to the legislation during its second reading. The scope of the offence of obstructing an election campaign will be broadened to include actions related to the activity of a "foreign power", and criminal liability will also be introduced for "denying or questioning post-war documents regulating conditions in Slovakia after the Second World War". The legislation also modifies the status of cooperating defendants. Parliament discussed the amendment under a fast-tracked legislative procedure. Of the 136 MPs voting, 76 supported the bill, 60 opposed it, none abstained and 14 were absent. The amendment also changes the Distraint Code. Distraint officers will be allowed to impose coercive measures to recover damages caused by a crime or an offence. The government justified the amendment by pointing to a rise in property-related offences and growing aggression in society. According to the government, the increase in petty theft and the aggressiveness of offenders followed a disinformation campaign by the media and misleading statements by some political figures claiming that "theft is unpunishable and worth it". MPs also approved committee-submitted amendments. Under the new rules, obstructing an election campaign will also include breaching the ban on publishing information about political parties, movements, coalitions or candidates in the 48 hours before election day and on election day until the close of voting, if such conduct is "linked to a foreign power or a foreign actor". The explanatory report also states that free political competition was influenced from abroad during the 2023 parliamentary elections. A "foreign power" is defined as "foreign states and their military or other groupings represented by their organisations and bodies, such as intelligence operatives, military officers, diplomats and other state officials". A prison sentence of up to one year will apply to anyone who, "in cooperation with a foreign power or foreign actor", violates the ban on activities in support of or against political parties, movements, coalitions or candidates during the election campaign. The amendment also introduces a prison sentence of up to six months for publicly denying or questioning the post-Second World War settlement "established on the basis of legal acts of the representative bodies of the Czechoslovak Republic or the Slovak National Council". The legislation also amends the Code of Criminal Procedure. According to MPs, the status of cooperating defendants has been abused, for example in convictions based on statements later shown to be unreliable. "Courts do not adequately deal with assessing their credibility," the explanatory report states. The amendment therefore proposes to define more precisely "the inadmissibility of evidence obtained through the granting of an unlawful benefit" and explicitly requires courts "to address in the reasoning of a judgment the credibility of a cooperating defendant who has received a benefit". mf