New Penal Code takes effect

After a long time, the Penal Code that passed through the Parliament last year has taken effect.

The Parliament decided to bring the new Penal Code into effect on 13 April of this year. But it was later changed to 16 July.

As the new Penal Code comes into effect starting today, the Legal Sector Resources of the Attorney General’s Office has conducted programs to familiarize people with the new Penal Code.

Trainings were conducted for the prosecutors of the PG’s Office and the Police. It was done by the Deputy Prosecutor General, Hussain Shameem.

Although sessions were held to familiarize the judges in Malé City with the Penal Code, the magistrates in the atolls were not at all familiarized.

Shameem told Sun Media today that major changes would come to the Judicial System with the new Penal Code. And that this is also the first time that Judges are given guides on sentencing.

Deputy Prosecutor General, Shameem said that the Penal Code is designed to make this easier for the Police as well and it would be easy to familiarize the people to it.

“Anything considered a crime has been written down. Police can say this is a crime under this article, with no confusion so that the common man would know. So it would make things very easy.” Shameem said.

According to the new Penal Code, if charges aren’t pressed for a mid-level crime, it cannot be pursued after three years.

And if a charge is not pressed for a major crime, it cannot be pursued after eight years from the date of the crime. But the crimes confirmed by the Quran and the Prophet (SAW) are not included among those.