The amendment, which is to enter into force on 1 October 2023, will introduce many changes to Polish criminal law, in particular regarding the amount of sanctions. First of all, the statutory punishment is to be tightened in the case of crimes directed against life, health and sexual freedom. Moreover, new types of offenses will appear in the special part of the Penal Code.
The most „high-profile” modifications seem to be: raising the upper limit of imprisonment from 15 years to 30 years and abolishing the penalty of 25 years of imprisonment, as well as introducing the penalty of absolute life imprisonment into the penal code (i.e. without the possibility of parole under probation) .
Higher sanctions by way of amendment will appear in connection with crimes such as: rape, accepting bribes, robbery, as well as armed robbery, or intentionally causing grievous bodily harm (in the case of the last two of the above-mentioned types of crimes, the maximum penalty will be henceforth at the level of 20 years of imprisonment). Thus, it can be seen that the changes introduced in the criminal law are relatively extensive and aim at tightening up the judiciary.
Apart from general modifications in the catalog of penalties and changes in the statutory penalty for particular types of offences, the legislator decided to specify new types of prohibited acts. These are: acceptance of a murder order, evasion of compensation for damage caused by a crime, extortion of property through blackmail, and, moreover, a staged form in the form of preparation to commit murder will henceforth be punishable by imprisonment from 2 to 15 years.
No matter how loudly commented in the public debate (including critical comments) on the introduced reform, the amendment, as a result of being signed by the President of the Republic of Poland, will soon become a binding regulation. However, it should be hoped that increasing the statutory penalty and introducing greater rigor to the legal system will consequently have a preventive value and will help to deter potential criminals from committing prohibited acts.
