Greece mulls bill that could potentially ease punishment for rapists
The bill makes it possible for some rapes to be treated as misdemeanours and not felonies, and thus punishable by as little as three years in prison
Athens — When is a rape a rape? Greek women are taking to the streets Wednesday to tackle that question after Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras’s government took a step back in the definition of rape in the country’s penal code, potentially easing the punishment for rapists.
The bill submitted to parliament by justice minister Michalis Kalogirou, which is due to be voted on Thursday, fails to honour the Greek state’s commitment at the Council of Europe’s Istanbul Convention in 2018 to take necessary legislative measures to criminalise any nonconsensual sexual acts, its critics say. It also defines rape in terms of the physical threat it may present to a victim’s life rather than putting consent at its core...
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