The Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Amendment Bill was passed by the ZANU PF-dominated National Assembly (Lower House of Parliament) on Thursday.
The proposed law contains the contentious Patriotic clause that seeks to punish Zimbabweans who campaign against the country through private correspondence with foreign Governments and harm the national interest.
The Bill was passed with some amendments and now awaits transmission to Senate.
If the Senate approves of the Bill, it will then be sent to the President for his signature to become an Act.
Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ziyambi Ziyambi brought amendments to the Bill which were supported by ZANU PF MPs but were opposed by CCC led by Harare East MP, Tendai Biti.
At least 99 Members of Parliament voted in favour of the amendments while 17 voted against resulting in the adoption of the amendments. Ziyambi’s proposed amendments to Clause 2 (3) read as follows:
Any citizen or permanent resident of Zimbabwe who, within or outside Zimbabwe, intentionally partakes in any meeting, whose object or one of whose objects the accused knows, or has reasonable grounds for believing involves the consideration of or the planning for the implementation or enlargement of sanctions or a trade boycott against Zimbabwe (whether those sanctions or that boycott is untargeted or targets any individual or official, or class of individuals or officials), but whose effects indiscriminately affect the people of Zimbabwe as a whole, or any substantial section thereof shall be guilty of wilfully damaging the sovereignty and national interest of Zimbabwe and liable to…
The clause provides penalties that include a fine not exceeding level twelve or imprisonment for a period not exceeding 10 years, or both.
Other proposed penalties include termination of the citizenship of the convicted person, if that person is a citizen by registration or a dual citizen, prohibition of being a registered voter for a period ranging between five and 15 years and prohibition of standing for a public office for a prescribed period.
The Bill sailed through after the Parliamentary Legal Committee issued a Non-Adverse Report on amendments that had been adopted.
The Bill also amended the current framing of the offence of criminal abuse of office, and provides for a mandatory minimum sentence in rape and murder cases and expands the definition of “dangerous drugs”.
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