The government, at a today’s meeting, ruled to toughen the sanctions for those who vandalize graves. In this respect, Justice Minister Fadei Nagacevschi presented a draft law which sees increase in sanctions for religious intolerance in Moldova.  

According to the government’s communication and protocol department, the sanctions currently provided for in the criminal and contravention legislation do not discourage the committing of such deeds in the long run. For this reason, decision-makers propose a harshening of the responsibility for committing deeds which show religious intolerance and lack of respect for the feelings of people attached to religious values.    

Under the draft, a fine is suggested worth from 750 to 950 conventional units or non-remunerated work for the community from 180 to 240 hours or imprisonment of up to 2 years. At the same time, they propose the regulation as contravention of the action of profaning graves, as well as the increase in the contravention sanction from 18 to 36 conventional units.   

„We condemn the actions which occurred in the Jewish Cemetery on 2 November. We must come up with a tough reaction to these offences. We are a civilized state and we are attached to the memory of the ancestors, of all people who lived on this land, no matter the ethnic affiliation they belonged to; respectively, such cases are worth being condemned and punished with all severity of the law,’’ Ion Chicu said.