Vice President Margarita Popova seeks abolition of life sentence without parole

Vice President Margarita Popova called for the abolition of life sentence without parole from Bulgaria's Criminal Code. According to Popova, this kind of punishment is unacceptable in advanced countries because it is inhumane, depriving the convict of all hope and prospects, meaningless and too close to death sentence in its purpose.

Popova pointed out that two successive governments supported the change only to see their efforts come to nothing.

"With this sort of punishment, there is no chance of pardon and the human life is stripped of its value," Popova said, speaking at a conference on pardon issues.

However, Popova noted that lawmakers are expected to come up with fair punishment for perpetrators of serious criminal offences.

The Vice President called for a discussion on a common European crime code, more specifically with respect to the war on corruption. She said that European integration has to involve central monitoring of corruption problems in all EU member-states. Popova changed the Vice President's pardon policy and, now, exercises this right only in rare cases, as opposed to President Georgi Parvanov's and Vice President Angel Marin's administration.

Popova said giving pardon is a very important but still a misunderstood and underdeveloped policy instrument.

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