A Renaissance senator wants to put imprescriptibility back on the table

He wants to send an “important message for the victims”. Senator Xavier Iacovelli, member of the Renaissance presidential party, has tabled a bill to remove the limitation periods in the event of sexual violence against a minor.

“Whatever the moment when you finally manage to speak, the State or the justice system will be there to listen to you”: this is the “message” that the elected representative of Hauts-de-Seine hopes to convey with his text co -signed by around twenty senators from several groups (RDPI with a Renaissance majority, RDSE with a radical majority, Les Républicains, l’Union centriste, Les Indépendants).

From ten to twenty after the majority now

Its text thus proposes to remove the prescription in the event of sexual assault or rape of a minor. To date, a minor can file a complaint for sexual assault up to 10 or 20 years after his majority, depending on his age at the time of the incident.

For the rape of a minor, the limitation period is 30 years but can be extended if the same person subsequently rapes another minor. She can then be tried for the oldest rape, even if it is theoretically prescribed. This is referred to as an “extended” or “sliding” prescription.

Insufficient provisions for the senator, who deplores that this last device puts “undue pressure (…) on the most recent victims”.

The example of European neighbors

It also intends to hit harder in the event of non-reporting of a sexual offense against a minor, by harmonizing the limitation period for this offense and increasing it to 20 years. The senator anticipates points of disagreement with certain lawyers refractory to imprescriptibility, but also with the Chancellery which, at this stage, advocates the sliding prescription mechanism.

“It is not because the prescription is inscribed in our Penal Code that we cannot evolve. Other countries like Switzerland, the Netherlands, Denmark have abolished the prescription for sexual violence against minors, ”insists Xavier Iacovelli, assuring that his proposal is in conformity with the Constitution.

It remains to be seen when his text could be put on the parliamentary agenda. The senator, who will first have to be re-elected in the next elections (September 24), then hopes to have his text included in one of the days reserved for groups during the next session starting in the fall.

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