LF submits a draft law to revoke amnesty of rapist

Lebanese Forces member, MP Elie Kairuz, submitted last Friday a draft legislation revoking Article 522 of the Penal Code which provides for end of all prosecution against a sexual assaulter if he marries his victim. (Section 7 of the Penal Code/ on crimes of obscene or abusive nature). The proposal, according to Kairuz, is aimed for the physical protection of a woman, her dignity and physical safety, and subsequently, amendment to the current legislative criminal justice system (represented by the Penal Code), becomes mandatory to end all discrimination against women. The said law proposal centers on the text of Article 522 which orders “the end of prosecution and suspension of punishment of the aggressor in the incident of a true marriage between him and his victim.” The preamble or explanatory statement of the draft indicates that halting the prosecution of the assailant justifies the impunity for other criminals, particularly that the said article involves all felonies specified in Chapter One that are sexually-related, notably rape, kidnapping or immoral acts, and as such, no perpetrator, accomplice, intervener, instigator or partner in the crime is discharged. The above proposal considers that the “present text applied on cases of abuse of women by either force, violence or deceptive persuasion, in fact applies to acts that pose a serious aggression against a woman’s dignity, as well as against her physical, psychological and moral integrity". Therefore, the proposal goes on, “any alleged marriage between the aggressor, or one of the aggressors if they were many, and their victim, does not constitute a compensation or solution to the violence suffered by the woman as a result of the assault.” (Al Akhbar, July 30, 2016)