Scores of organized crime cases pending

Hundreds of organized crime trials have been left pending due to an abstention of lawyers that lasted for two years owing to their opposition to a provision in the Penal Code passed in 2020. 

The provision in question set out the criminal treatment of those convicted on misdemeanor or felony criminal organization charges, sparking the universal reaction by lawyers across the country.

The controversial provision passed in the spring of 2022 (Law 4908) provided for something that had not been in place until then, namely that anyone convicted of a criminal organization offense, whether it be a misdemeanor or a felony, would go to jail.

In other words, the sentences of those convicted would not be suspended. Lawyers were incensed, arguing that this was totally unfair because it provided for the same treatment, imprisonment, for those who had misdemeanor convictions...