Amended Penal Code Puts Severe Punishments for Crimes of Rape, Child Rights Violation

Amended Penal Code Puts Severe Punishments for Crimes of Rape, Child Rights Violation

The Ethiopian Herald (Addis Ababa)
January 1, 2006 Posted to the web January 1, 2006
ENAAddis Ababa
A judge at the Federal First Instance Court said a person who deliberately infects another person with HIV/AIDS by committing rape will, according to the Amended Penal Code, face a maximum penalty of death.
Judge Kedir Mohammed told ENA Friday that the Amended Penal Code has provided a minimum punishment of 15 years and a maximum of 25 years rigorous imprisonment for the crime of rape.
He recalled that the maximum punishment for the crime of rape in the previous penal code was five years rigorous imprisonment.
Kedir said the previous penal code did not provide equivalent punishment for the crimes of rape, abduction and homosexual acts perpetrated against children.
Kedir said the maximum punishment that was given for the crime of deliberately passing a communicable disease such as HIV/AIDS was only five years.
However, he said, the Amended Penal Code provides a maximum punishment of death on people convicted of deliberately infecting another person by rape.
Kedir said the punishment for rape under the previous penal code seemed to have been promulgated with the assumption that a girl under the age of 18 could consent to engage in sexual activity.
However, Kedir said, the amended Penal Code provides a minimum of 15 years and a maximum of 25 years rigorous imprisonment on a person convicted of engaging a girl under the age of 13 into sexual intercourse regardless of her consent.
He said the Amended Penal Code stipulates severe punishment extending up to life imprisonment if there are other reasons that can increase the weight of the crime.
Kedir recalled that the previous Penal Code did not consider rape as crime if it was followed by marriage.
However, he added, in the Amended Penal Code the crime of rape could not be nullified by the subsequent conclusion of marriage.
Judge Kedir said if the crime of rape is committed by the parent or guardian of the child the penal code provides for severe punishment.
Kedir also said the Amended Code also penalizes the act of inflicting harm on a child by a parent or a teacher under the excuse of punishing the child for some offence.
He said the law permits parents to guide their children in a way that doesn't create harm to them. However, the law prohibits teachers from inflicting harm on their students through punishment.