Santo Domingo.- The senator for San Juan, Félix Bautista, proposed to the Senate during the debates that 84 articles (21% of the total) of Law number 74-25, which establishes the Penal Code, be granted a 3-month vacation so they can be analyzed by the Chambers, given that those articles are being challenged before the Constitutional Court through 12 appeals of unconstitutionality filed by institutions and public figures.
The legislator cited as an example the provisions regarding complementary penalties in Article 29, numeral 6 of the Penal Code, indicating that “if a person is convicted of defamation, they may also be subject to a complementary penalty of temporary disqualification for a period of 5 years from practicing their profession, or permanent disqualification. This is contrary to Article 62, numeral 2 of the Constitution of the Republic regarding the right to work.“
Bautista expressed with great regret that, in 2018, Law No. 33-18 on Political Parties, Groups, and Movements was passed, and later the Constitutional Court declared 12 articles of said Law to be unconstitutional, indicating to Congress that it had to modify those articles because they violated constitutional precepts.
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The same will happen now with the Penal Code where there are articles like 29.6 which is contrary to the Constitution, among others, and even so the PRM majority is going to approve it. Later the TC will tell us that we were wrong and will urge us to modify the Code.
In his motion, the legislator proposed vacations for articles: 2.10, 8, 12, 24, 47, 48, 49, 68, 106, 107, 108, 110, 111, 124, 130, 131, 136, 142,158, 170, 173, 176, 177, 184, 185, 188, 192, 195, 207, 208, 209, 210, 211,
214, 221, 225.6, 225.9, 226.13, 227, 229, 232, 260, 261, 263, 271, 273, 275, 278, 283, 284, 285, 286, 290, 297, 299, 303, 304, 305, 308, 310, 311, 312, 315, 317, 320, 324, 325, 327, 330, 334, 334, 337, 339, 340, 341, 351,
352, 354.1, 367, 379, 380, 384 , 388 and 29.6
