On May 3, 2019, the Plurinational Legislative Assembly passed Law of Criminal Procedure Abbreviation and Strengthening of the Comprehensive Fight Against Violence against Children, Adolescents and Women (“Law”).
The purpose of the Law is to ensure the prompt and timely resolution of criminal conflicts, adopting to that effect, essential measures to deepen orality, strengthen the fight against violence against children, adolescents and women, avoid procedural delay and abuse of remand in custody and enable effective judicial protection to victims.
Among the most important points of the Law: Electronic notifications rendered to a specific Electronic Address in an effort to simplify procedural notifications. Therefore, the parties register a specific electronic email address, to be notified when they are not personally served notice.
Remand in custody is limited by the Principle of the Presumption of Innocence, since the request for remand in custody must be substantiated, by the victim or the prosecutor, moreover, on grounds of Article 235 ter, which provides that the judge cannot establish the risk of flight, or obstruction of justice based on simple subjective statements or abstract formulas.
The amendment of article 232° provides that the remand in custody shall not apply to property crimes subject to a penalty that is equal to or less than six years, i.e. crimes such as fraud, stellionatus, material or ideological forgery, etc.
The consolidation of orality will allow for legal proceedings to be completely oral, since they will be subject to audio/video recordings. The former written system will be canceled.
The main purpose of this Law is to end a major issue related to the criminal justice administration, that suffers constant suspension of hearings and delays. The Law will also allow for the use of overtime to carry out the commencement and conclusion of trails. Hearings will no longer be subject to indiscriminate suspensions.
