Petty- crimes escape legal process

According to a draft law prepared by the Family and Social Policies Ministry, petty-crimes committed by children under the age of 15 will be solved without a legal process and the offenses will not to be recorded in judicial registries given that they are not repeated. These children will then be reintegrated into the society through rehabilitation, the draft law said.

The Family and Social Policies Ministry completed the “Law Draft about Fighting against Child Abuse,” and sent it to the Justice Ministry, demanding “childish crimes” be abolished from the legal process, daily Sabah reported yesterday. Even if the child’s activities constitute a crime, the crime will be excluded from the legal process as long as it does not reach certain gravity. According to the draft, which was completed after 10 months of work, such crimes will not be recorded in the judicial registries of children under the age of 15. Thus children will no longer receive recorded judicial punishment records which might devastate their futures. For example, children caught throwing stones in demonstrations will be reintegrated into society through rehabilitation, instead of being involved in a legal process, on the condition that the same crime is not repeated.