Filenews 8 December 2021 - by Michalis Hadjivasilis
A criminal of strict liability is created for actions that cause fires, such as scorching, use of spark-emitting machines and a defective vehicle that can cause a fire.
At the same time, an attempt is being made to modernize the legislative framework with the aim of nipping fires in the bud. The modernization of all legislation will be done on the basis of the Forest Law which is the most recent and it is considered that the penalties it provides for are severe. According to the recommendations of the Working Group in which representatives from the Ministries of Agriculture, Interior and Justice participated, the penalties will be depending on the damage caused or the intention of the one who deliberately or negligently causes fire.
"F" secured the recommendations of the Working Group set up to study all the legislation and has submitted them to the inter-ministerial Committee. According to the Working Group, the whole effort relates to the proportionality of the penalties, which should be increased according to the result, that is, if a fire was caused, even if there was permission to do so, a reckless and neglectful act should carry a more severe penalty.
SUGGESTIONS
> For lighting a cigarette that may not cause a fire, to reduce the sentence from 10 to 5 years in prison. But if a fire is caused, then it must be 10 years.
> The Forestry Law should be amended so as to distinguish endangering offences from offences, with the result that, as the recommendations of the Legal Service, are separated. The penalties for risk offences and offences will be redefined, resulting in the offence of using spark-causing tools without permission during the fire season (1 May to 31 October). Violation of this article will carry a prison sentence of 5 years or a €25,000 fine.
> To improve the existing procedure for the out-of-court settlement of offences (procedure for the service of notice, its content, the period and method of repayment, the settlement of an extrajudicial settlement of offences (instalments, extension of repayment).
> Replacement of Article 32 of the Penal Code with Annex 7, which provides for cases where the lighting of a fire is allowed with permission from the Director or a forest officer or by a excursionist and exclusively for the preparation of food in permitted areas or by a holder of a house located in a state forest. Any person acting in violation of this provision will be liable to a penalty not exceeding 5 years' imprisonment or a €25,000 fine. In another case where an unquenchable fire is abandoned or a match or cigarette that can cause a fire is rejected, the penalty will be 5 years or a €25,000 fine.
> To criminalize the improper or defective operation of any motor vehicle that causes a fire and the penalty will be 10 years or a €50,000 fine.
> Any person who causes a forest fire by acting after permission, but due to reckless or negligent action or failure to take the necessary precautions, the prison sentence should be 10 years or a €50,000 fine.
> Any act that has the effect of causing a forest fire is criminalized.
> As to the deliberateness of an act of causing fire in the countryside, the Group has identified that in the offence of arson under the provisions of Article 315 of the Penal Code, it does not include the offence in the countryside. With regard to Article 317, which concerns fire in crops and plantations, it does not criminalise deliberately causing fire in the countryside in general. There is therefore room for improvement in the Penal Code, with regard to rural areas.
> To increase the penalties for throwing cigarette butts, matches or lighters, regardless of the result and the prison sentence of 2 years, or €6,000, to be increased to 5 years and to € 25,000, so that they comply with the Forest Law.
The Working Group has found that some are provided for in the Municipalities Law and others in the Communities Law. Specifically, while in the Municipalities Law, there is an offense that criminalizes the burning within any municipal boundaries of various materials, with a very low penalty of €860 or a prison sentence not exceeding 3 months, it is observed, however, that there is no such offence in the Communities Law. Therefore, it becomes necessary to (a) increase the penalty in the Municipalities Law and create a similar offense in the Communities Law, so that it is consistent with the penalties provided for in the Forestry Law and the Forest Fire Preventing In the Rural Law.
The Working Group considers that, in the event that the Ministerial Committee adopts the above recommendations, then each Ministry must make the necessary amendments / modernization of the legislative framework that falls under their competence, in cooperation with the Commissioner for Legislation.
The Legal Service saw the need for the sentences
The final recommendations of the Working Group must be submitted by the end of the year so that the amending bills are ready by the end of January 2022, a statement from the Legal Service said yesterday after a meeting of the inter-ministerial committee. The aim is for the bills to be passed before the start of the new fire season for 2022.
The changes in the laws concerning fires were deemed necessary by the Attorney General George Savvidis on the occasion of the large and devastating fire in the districts of Limassol and Larnaca in early July 2021 and after the Legal Service has previously made findings that the offences relating to arson, lighting a fire, causing a fire and other related offences are scattered in a number of laws, with some of these criminal behaviours overlapping, with even different penalties in some cases. The Working Group is assisted by a Senior Lawyer of the Republic, while the work of the Ministries for the preparation of the amending bills is coordinated by the Commissioner for Legislation.
Tougher penalties for outdoor fire
The Working Group's recommendation is that the Law on The Prevention of Fires in the Countryside should be repealed and replaced with a new text, which will include modernized provisions, not only regarding criminal offences, but also in general the way it operates in relation to the fight against fires in the countryside.
It also considers that the penalties provided for in the Forest Fire Protection Law are inadequate. A suggestion is made as in the Forest Fire Preventing Fires in the Countryside Law, the following are included:
i. Tightening of penalties so that they are consistent with those provided for in the Forest Law.
ii. Criminalization of specific activities that may cause a fire.
iii. Procedure for the licensing of specific activities that may cause a fire.
iv. Extrajudicial regulation for offences that do not result in the explosion of a fire.
v. To allow the court, in addition to the imposition of a penalty, to impose an additional fine equal to the amount of money that will be or may be required for the environmental or other restoration of the damage caused by the fire.
