Social Democrats reject whole criminal code over tunnelling omission

The Chamber of Deputies has failed to approve a new criminal code which would have radically overhauled Czech law. The governing Social Democrats decided not to support it because it dropped a provision on tunnelling (asset stripping) companies. Their decision meant the criminal code could not attain the 101 votes needed to overturn a veto by the Senate.

Justice Minister Pavel Nemec said it was short-sighted to reject legislation that had been in preparation for over a decade because of one contentious article.

Among several changes, it would have lowered the age of criminal responsibility to 14 and increased sentences for violent crimes. The Communist Party were opposed to the new code, as it would have made propagating communism a crime, while the Christian Democrats said it opened the way to the legalisation of euthanasia.