Life in prison for murder or rape of children. Prosecutor General asks Rada to increase responsibility

Criminal liability for crimes of particular gravity against children is to be increased and life imprisonment is to be introduced. This proposal was submitted to the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Law Enforcement by Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko .

It is about punishment for those who rape children or take their lives. The Prosecutor General reminded that today the maximum punishment for killing a child is up to 15 years in prison with the possibility of early release. In his opinion, this punishment is not fair .

"The country has lost a part of its future. And a criminal can return to normal life after serving a certain term. Therefore, I believe, and this is why I appealed to the members of the committee, that the sentence for such crimes should be as fair as possible – life imprisonment without alternative," he wrote .

Kravchenko believes that the prospect of never being released should be a deterrent to those planning crimes against children. He also noted that prosecutors have recently been able to defend life imprisonment in a number of high-profile cases:

→ Killing of Maksym Materukhin on a funicular in Kyiv.

→ In Kharkiv, a 41-year-old man was found guilty of committing crimes against the sexual freedom of a minor child.

→ In Dnipro, prosecutor provides evidence that 44-year-old man raped and molested three young children.

→ In Dnipropetrovs'k region, prosecutors secured life imprisonment for a man who killed a minor child and committed sexual violence.

The Prosecutor General also provided statistics on crimes against children over the past 19 months. 67 children were victims of intentional murders, 531 children were victims of sexual violence, 360 of them under the age of 14.

"Justice must be strict, and the punishment must be proportionate to the crime. I ask MPs to support the initiative of the Prosecutor General's Office and amend the legislation of Ukraine. A murderer or a rapist should no longer count on leniencies or loopholes in the law," Kravchenko emphasized .

• on February 7, it became known that three defendants in the case of the rape of a minor in Zakarpattia were sentenced to six years in prison.
• On April 7, it was reported that the Kadyrovite who raped minors in Snihurivka, Mykolaiv region, was suspected by law enforcement.