The Parliament's Legal Committee is discussing stricter penalties for driving

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The Parliamentary Committees on Legal Affairs and Transportation are discussing severe penalties with extrajudicial regulations, for issues related to driving under the influence of alcohol and excessive speed, with the Police and representatives of the Ministry of Transportation, under the pretext of giving a message to the Cypriot society and courts, in order to better facilitate the speedy administration of justice in the country; 

In his statements, after the meeting held in the Parliament, the Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Legal Affairs, Ionas Nikolaou, said that proposals are pending before the Legal and Transport Committees, which come to settle the offense of speeding, as well as driving under the influence of alcohol, classifying these offenses and extrajudicial sentences based on the seriousness of the offense.

As Mr. Nikolaou said, "we will see extrajudicial fines being imposed, which will vary depending on the seriousness of the crime, such as if for example someone exceeds the speed limit up to 30% of the permissible limit to be fined one euro per kilometer, from 31% to 50% two euros per kilometer and two penalty points and over 50% up to 75% three euros per kilometer and three penalty points ".

Regarding driving under the influence of alcohol, he said that "when, for example, in the exhalation of a driver is observed to contain an amount up to 35mg in 100 millimeters of exhalation, he will be fined 100 euros", noting that "this corresponds approximately to the amount consumed, which reaches three glasses of wine or a corresponding quantity of whiskey or other alcoholic beverages ".

"If it is over 35mg to 55mg the extrajudicial fine will be 200 euros plus two penalty points and over 56mg up to 70mg the extrajudicial fine will be 300 euros plus three penalty points," he said.

He expressed the assessment that these sentences are shorter than those imposed by the courts, because this is the role of extrajudicial sentences, adding that "this is done in order to better serve the purpose of the sentence, which is its immediacy, ie "when someone commits the crime, the punishment should be imposed on him, in order to recognize the seriousness of his crime, instead of waiting for one or two years to be brought before the court and to be imposed the appropriate court punishment".

In addition, he said that "at the same time that the offenses, which can be settled out of court, are expanding, we expect that the number of cases that will be brought before the courts will be significantly reduced", adding that "for example until today it was not possible out-of-court settlement of the offense of driving under the influence of alcohol and in 2011 we had 8.479 complaints, in 2010 9.306 complaints, of which at least 3/4 were settled out of court ".

"Therefore," he said, "to estimate that a significant number of cases are now being brought before the criminal courts merely for the purpose of imposing a sentence, even one that is much later than the time it should have been imposed and its purpose not to be served. "Today, with this regulation, the offender must pay the fine out of court and at the same time recognize and realize the seriousness of the crime he committed", he said.

Concluding, he said that "in this way we believe that we can send a serious message to the Cypriot society regarding driving and the influence of alcohol and the excessive speed that are the two main causes of accidents in our country, but not much more than fatal accidents and at the same time to serve the effective decongestion of the criminal courts, in order to better facilitate the faster administration of justice in our country ".