President ratifies the amendment to the new Penal Code

President Abdulla Yamin Abdul Gayoom has ratified the amendments passed by the Parliament to the new Penal Code that came into effect last month.

The Parliament has passed amendments to three articles of the Penal Code. The amendments were made to article of reviewing the amount of money, bribery and corruption and crimes mentioned in the Sharia.

The article on reviewing the amount of money now says that the Parliament has to review the amount of money by the Parliament every four years to make arrangements accordingly.

The amendment from the Parliament says that the Government has to submit a bill that reviews and make changes to the Parliament every five years.

The amendment to Article 314-B of the Penal code if a person benefits from something not mentioned in 314-A, that would be a crime.

The amendment to the article of crimes mentioned in the Sharia now says that if someone has been convicted of a crime mentioned in the Quran, his punishment would be according to the Quran and the Penal Code, true to Islamic Sharia Law.

The other amendment says that if a person cannot be convicted as per Islamic Sharia as under (A), but is convicted under the Penal Code, that person would be punished under the Penal Code.

A penal code is a document which compiles all, or a significant amount of, a particular jurisdiction's criminal law.