The elimination of the crime of sedition and the modification of the embezzlement will enter into force on January 12, after the Official State Gazette (BOE) has published this Friday the new organic law. The reform of the Criminal Code, which received the green light yesterday in the Senate, also includes the introduction of a crime of aggravated public disorder.
The legal changes began with a bill presented by the PSOE and Unidas Podemos, they were sealed with the agreement between the Socialists and ERC on the embezzlement amendments and were definitively validated yesterday by the Senate, after Congress did the same. same. In the Upper House, the reform obtained 140 votes in favor, 118 against and 3 abstentions.
With the new law, sedition is repealed and a crime of aggravated public disorder enters the Penal Code, for which a maximum sentence of 5 years in prison is contemplated (sedition now provides for 15 in the most serious cases). It also differentiates three levels of the crime of embezzlement: when there is a profit motive (the current penalties are maintained, from 2 to 12 years in prison); non-profit "for private use" (from 6 months to 3 years); and budget deviation (between 1 and 4 years). Likewise, the reform introduces illicit enrichment. Finally, the amendments referring to the CGPJ and the TC were withdrawn after the suspension of the guarantee body.
The preamble to this new organic law reflects the intention to standardize Spanish legislation for neighboring countries and recalls that the crimes in force up to now correspond "even to social realities of two centuries ago." "It is time now, therefore, for the Spanish legal system to update certain definitions, in terms of criminal behavior and the appropriate responses in 21st century societies," the text states.
Once the legal changes come into force, the Supreme Court will be in charge of reviewing the sentences of those convicted by the process.
