President overrides human-rights objections to sign criminal code into law

Human-rights campaigners had appealed to the president to reject parts of the amendment relating to the mentally ill and substance abusers.

The amendment allows courts to order preventive measures, such as monitoring or therapy, for any crime committed by an addict in connection with their dependency.

Despite relatively low crime, Poland has the EU’s highest incarceration rates, President Bronisław Komorowski said when signing the code amendment into law.

The amendment will come into law on July 1.

The 1997 criminal code has been changed 60 times, but this is the most far-reaching amendment to date, the president said.

Instead of suspended jail terms, courts will now make more liberal use of fines and electronic monitoring sentences.

To date, courts have handed out suspended jail terms in 60 percent of cases.

A new option for the courts will be to a short jail term, followed by a longer period of electronic monitoring. (an)

Source: TVN24