The General Part

Title III
Penalties

Chapter I
Categories and general limits for penalties applied to natural persons

Types of penalties

Art.58 - (3) Main penalties for crimes are :

• a) life detention ;

The General Part

Title III
Penalties

Chapter III
The regulation for execution of main penalties applied to natural persons

Section 2
Regulations for the execution of life detention and severe detention

The place and manner of executing the penalty of life detention and of severe detention

Art.63 - (1) Life detention and severe detention shall be executed in prisons expressly destined for this or in special sections of the other prisons.

(2) The treatment for life detention and severe detention is the maximum-security treatment. Persons convicted to life detention or severe detention can pass to the other treatments in accordance with the law on penalty execution.

Non-application of life-detention

Art.64 - (1) Life detention shall not apply to persons who, at the date of pronunciation of the conviction decision, have reached the age of 60 years. In this case, life detention shall be replaced by the maximum penalty of severe detention and the complementary penalty of the interdiction of the right of rights for the maximum length.

(2) When the person convicted to life detention has reached the age of 60 during the execution of the penalty, life detention shall be replaced with the maximum penalty of severe detention and the complementary penalty of the interdiction of the right of rights for the maximum length.

Calculating the penalty in case of commutation or replacement of life detention

Art.65 - In cases of commutation or replacement of life detention with severe detention, the period of detention executed is considered a part executed from the penalty of severe detention.

The General Part

Title III
Penalties

Chapter III
The regulation for execution of main penalties applied to natural persons

Section 6
Parole

Parole for life detention convicts

Art.72– (1) Persons convicted to life detention can be released on parole after the actual execution of 20 years of detention, if he/she is consistent at work, well disciplined and shows serious improvement, also taking into account the criminal antecedents.

(2) Convicts over the age of 60 can be released on parole after the actual execution of 15 years of detention, if the other conditions provided in para.(1) are also met.

(3) A penalty shall be deemed as executed if within 10 years from parole the convict has not committed any new offence. If during this interval the convict has committed a new offence, Art.73 shall apply accordingly.

(4) During parole the court can oblige the convict to submit to measures of supervision provided in Art.103.

The Special Part

Title I
Crimes and delicts against persons

Chapter I
Crimes against humankind

Genocide

Art.172 – (1) The commission of one of the following acts in order to completely or partly destroy a community or a national, ethnic, racial or religious group :

• a) killing of the members of the community or group ;
b) serious infringement upon the physical or mental integrity of the members of the community or group ;
c) subjection of the community or group to living conditions or treatment likely to lead to physical destruction ;
d) taking measures tending to hinder births in the community or group ;
e) forced transfer of children belonging to a community or group into another community or group,

shall be punished by life detention or severe detention from 15 to 25 years and the prohibition of certain rights.

(2) Agreement in order to commit the offence of genocide shall be punished by severe detention from 15 to 20 years and the prohibition of certain rights.

The Special Part

Title I
Crimes and delicts against persons

Chapter I
Crimes against humankind

Inhuman treatment

Art.173 – (3) Torture, mutilation or extermination of persons in para.(1) shall be punished by life detention or by severe detention from 15 to 25 years and the prohibition of certain rights.

The Special Part

Title I
Crimes and delicts against persons

Chapter I
Crimes against humankind

Other crimes against humankind

Art.175 – (1) Commission, during a generalised or systematic attack launched against the civil population, of any of the following acts :
...
shall be punished by life detention or by severe detention from 15 to 25 years and the prohibition of certain rights.

The Special Part

Title VII
Crimes and delicts against the accomplishment of justice

Torture

Art.343 – (1) An act deliberately causing a person pain or intense suffering, either physically or mentally, in order to obtain from that person or from a third party information or confessions, to punish him/her for an act committed by him/her or a third party or that he/she or a third party is suspected to have committed, to intimidate or exercise pressure on him/her or on a third party, or for any other reason based on a form of discrimination, regardless of its nature, when such pain or suffering is applied by an agent of public authority or by any other person acting in official capacity or upon instigation or with the express or tacit consent of such persons shall be punished by strict imprisonment from 2 to 7 years.

(2) If the act in para.(1) resulted in any of the consequences in Art.186 or Art.187, the penalty shall be strict imprisonment from 5 to 15 years.

(3) Torture that resulted in the victim’s death shall be punished by life detention or by severe detention from 15 to 25 years.

(4) No exceptional circumstance, whatever its nature may be, regardless of whether it is a state of war or of war threats, internal political instability or any other exceptional state, can be invoked to justify torture ; also, the order of the law or command of legitimate authority cannot be invoked either.

(5) Acts in para.(1) shall not be offences of torture if the pain or suffering are the exclusive result of legal sanctions and are inherent to these sanctions or caused by them.