Life in prison for child sexual abuse

The sanctions for child sexual abuse in Macedonia are about to extend to life in prison, and new articles referring to production and use of child pornography and trafficking with minors are set to be incorporated in the Criminal Code.The draft-amendments to the Criminal Code, including the extended sanctions, have been approved at the last session of the government.

The perpetrator of the crime "child sexual abuse" on persons aged under 14, is subject to at least 4 years imprisonment. If the perpetrator is a close relative, a teacher or a doctor of the victim, the minimum prison term rises to 8 years.
In case the crime is committed by more than one person, or the attack caused injuries or death to the underage victim, the foreseen sanction is 10 years to life in prison.
"Production and distribution of child pornography through a computer system" is the newly introduced crime included in the Criminal Code, subject to 1 to 5 years imprisonment. The user of child pornography materials will be jailed for 3-12 months.
The Criminal Code will be also supplemented with "Trafficking with minors". A person who solicitates, transports, buys, sells or accepts an underage person for sexual exploitation, pornography, forced labor, etc, will be punished with at least 8-year prison sentence.
The minimum sentence for the crime of rape rises from 1 to 3 years in prison.
Instead of the current six months to five years, "Solicitation" will be sanctioned with one to five years, while the harmonization of the "Human trafficking" crime with the Protocol on Prevention, stamping out and sanctioning of human trafficking is under way.
The buildings and premises used for committing human trafficking or trafficking with minors, including hotels, motels, bars, apartments, are also subject to confiscation.

You can read the article on the website of MakFax Online