Sentencing

Four jailed members of the now-defunct Greek terrorist group November 17, including leader Alexandros Giotopoulos, will be able to apply as of Tuesday for conditional release on the basis of a new penal code that came into effect Monday, and the group's hitman Dimitris Koufodinas will be able to do the same in September.

Under the terms of the new penal code (Article 110A) passed in parliament by the ruling party recently and which is in effect as of 1 July, the convicted leader of the 17N terrorist group Alexandros Giotopoulos and other prominent members can apply for release from prison under the condition that they wear a prison bracelet.

The High Court of Cassation and Justice (ICCJ) sentenced Liviu Dragnea to three years and 6 months in prison for instigating to abuse of office in the case of the fictitious hiring at the Teleorman Social Assistance and Child Protection Directorate General (DGASPC). The Supreme Court maintained in the case of PSD (Social Democratic Party, main ruling, ed.

The Serbian Parliament has voted amendments to the Penal Code to abolish the 30- to 40-year prison sentence and introduce life imprisonment for the worst crimes, Tanjug reported.

The changes to the Balkan country's criminal law were approved with 159 votes in the 250-member assembly. 

The amendments abolish jail sentences of 30 and 40 years - until now the most severe legal penalty for the gravest crimes - and introduces life imprisonment instead.

There are 15 of them, ranging from the crime of murdering representatives of the highest state authorities to genocide. Sentences of 30 to 40 years in prison will be abandoned, so Serbian judges will have to choose between 20 years and life imprisonment when sentencing people so convicted.

An Athens court on Wednesday handed down a 10-year suspended sentence to Andreas Martinis, the former chairman of Athens's Henry Dunant Hospital, and his wife after finding them guilty of money laundering.

The legislation is named after a teenager abducted and murdered several years ago, and aims to introduce life sentence for those found guilty of committing the most serious crimes.

A Supreme Court prosecutor on Wednesday proposed the exoneration of a school cleaner who was given a 10-year prison sentence for falsifying her elementary school certificate.

An appeals court has upheld a three-month jail sentence for a man who had been found guilty for taking a photo of his ballot paper during the 2017 referendum and sharing it on social media.