Esquerra Republicana registered its package of amendments to the bill to reform the Penal Code, with a notable amendment relating to the crime of embezzlement, first thing in the Congress of Deputies this Friday. The Republicans advocate introducing the "profit motive" as a requirement for embezzlement in the case of public officials and authorities, and are committed to recovering a wording of article 432 similar to the one that came into force in 1995, although they maintain the fork of penalties introduced by the PP in 2015, with between two and six years in prison.
In addition, ERC wants to create a new article, 432 bis, so that "the authority or public official who, without the intention of appropriating it, allocates to private uses and unrelated to the public function the public patrimony placed in his charge by reason of his functions or on the occasion of the same, will incur a prison sentence of six months to three years, and suspension from employment or public office from one to four years. In the current wording of article 432 of the Criminal Code, penalties of between 2 and 6 years in prison are imposed for "the authority or public official who commits the crime of article 252 [referring to unfair administration] on public property."
In a statement, the formation details that its intention is to "stop talking about poorly defined and subjective behaviors such as misappropriation and unfair administration, which are typical of the private sphere."
The Republicans also point out that their objective is "to prevent the State from using the crime of embezzlement arbitrarily again to persecute the independence movement, while also preventing the reform from being used to reduce sentences in cases of corruption". In a similar sense, Junts per Catalunya, in its amendment, proposed recovering the 2004 draft in its entirety and annulling the 2015 popular reform, which came after the 9-N consultation.
"The penalties that affect the crimes of political corruption and personal enrichment are maintained, as it could not be otherwise, without the possibility of lowering their penalty," add the Republicans.
In addition, the Republican group, led in Madrid by Gabriel Rufián, has presented amendments regarding the crime of public disorder. They want to reduce the aggravated minimum sentence to one year and other modifications are promoted so that the law "is more guaranteeing, democratic and makes it difficult for the right to assembly and demonstration to be criminalized."
For their part, PSOE and Unidas Podemos, which registered the bill, will register an amendment this Friday to create a new crime of illicit enrichment that provides for up to three years in prison for public officials who cannot justify higher enrichment. to 250,000 euros after the request of an official body, according to La Ser. With this new point of the articles on the crimes of embezzlement, the 438 bis, the Government intends to strengthen the fight against political corruption in parallel to the reform of embezzlement , which will be incorporated through an ERC amendment that has been negotiated with Moncloa until the last moment.
With this new article, Sánchez wants to tackle the concern that exists in the socialist ranks and among the usual partners of the Government due to the risk that the sedition reform, whose door was opened by the head of the Executive with the intention of benefiting convicted or prosecuted for that crime and to continue with his agenda of reunion in Catalonia, he would become a sieve for the corrupt.
The new article, as explained by La Ser, establishes that, for a period of up to five years after the performance of the position, the authority "that has obtained an increase in assets or a cancellation of obligations or debts for a value greater than 250,000 euros with respect to their accredited income" will be "punished with prison sentences of six to three years, a fine from as much to triple the benefit and special disqualification for public employment or office and for the exercise of passive suffrage for a period of between two to seven years" in the in the event that he "openly refused to comply with the requirements of the competent bodies intended to verify their justification."
This amendment is going to be incorporated into the new text of the Criminal Code initially proposed to replace the crime of sedition with that of aggravated public disorder, but it is also going to touch up the crime of embezzlement, in both cases with benefits for pro-independence officials involved in the process. The debate will be next week in the Lower House.
