Santo Domingo.- The Chamber of Deputies on Tuesday approved the new 398-page Penal Code, which among other things, provides for concurrent sentences of up to 60 years in prison.
It also raises the maximum sentence from 30 to 40 years for murder, money laundering, use of the "devil’s acid," hi-tech crimes and criminal conspiracy, among others.
The lawmakers passed the bill 132 votes to 11 with the changes made by the Senate in July.
Chaotic is what Judiciary Committee chair Demostenes Martinez called the current Criminal Code, which has undergone 82 amendments. "These changes had made it chaotic because the code’s criteria of proportionality in penalties haven’t been respected."
President Danilo Medina is expected to sign the new legislation into law.