Wire flash
Germany's justice minister finalizes draft law to toughen sexual offense penalties
Editorial responsibility
- No named human review is recorded for this page.
- Source reporting is collected, normalized, translated or condensed automatically when needed.
- Automatically published source-backed update
German Justice Minister Stefanie Hubig (SPD) has finalized a draft law to tighten sexual criminal law and plans to send it to states and associations for comment. The draft would criminalize verbal sexual harassment when an utterance or gesture is suited to intimidate or pressure another person, punishable by up to one year in prison or a fine. Hubig said the measure targets sexual assaults, not failed compliments. The statute of limitations for rape and jointly committed sexual assaults would rise uniformly from five to twenty years. Minimum penalties would also increase for gang rape and rape resulting in pregnancy. Hubig argued serious crimes should not go unpunished merely because victims learn years later what was done to them.
Source report
Stefanie Hubig (SPD), Federal Minister of Justice and Consumer Protection. Source: Kay Nietfeld/dpa
The new draft bill to tighten sexual offense law also provides for the punishment of verbal sexual harassment. The statute of limitations is also to be raised from five to twenty years.
Federal Justice Minister Stefanie Hubig (SPD) is pushing ahead with the planned tightening of criminal law on rape. The announced bill is complete and was to be sent to the federal states and associations today with the opportunity to comment, the Redaktionsnetzwerk Deutschland (RND) reported. The draft, which is available to RND, also provides for the punishment of verbal sexual harassment.
The SPD politician said recently that she considers a five-year statute of limitations for rape to be too short. In future, the statute of limitations for both rape and jointly committed sexual assaults is to be a uniform twenty years.
Related coverage
- Weltplus article on sexual offense law: "No leftist nonsense" – Union politicians back "only yes means yes" rule for sexual contact
"It cannot be that such serious crimes go unpunished simply because the victim only learns years later what was done to her," Hubig told RND. According to the minister, minimum penalties for gang rape and rape resulting in pregnancy are also to be increased.
Anyone who harasses another person through a sexually specific remark or gesture is to become liable to prosecution in future "if the remark or gesture is suitable for intimidating or pressuring the other person," RND quotes from the draft. Such acts are to be punishable by up to one year's imprisonment or a fine. The provision is not about "failed compliments," according to the report. "Sexual assaults are unacceptable – this applies to physical violence just as much as to verbal harassment and threats," Hubig said.
dpa/gold
Source
Nachrichten - WELTWestern