Bill — 25 years for kidnapping

GOVERNMENT yesterday tabled Kidnapping bill, which would now impose a 25 year sentence for kidnapping.

The Kidnapping Bill 2003, which seeks to punish all those who engage in kidnapping, would punish those who knowingly receive or negotiate to obtain a ransom. The bill would expose those persons who receive, “have in their possession or dispose of money or property which was delivered as a ransom in connection with a kidnapping”, to 15 years imprisonment. Those who negotiate or assist in the negotiations to obtain a ransom would receive a 25-year sentence.  The bill also targets persons who provide information “whether directly or indirectly” to any accused person, relating to the bank accounts, monies or property of a kidnapped person or his relative or any other material personal information of the kidnapped person. The penalty for this offence would be imprisonment for five years.

The Bill, which requires a special majority, would deem a person under 18 years “incapable of consenting to being abducted, seized, detained or held”. The Bill also imposes a duty on any person who is aware of the commission or the intention to commit a kidnapping to give information to the police. A person who fails to comply is liable to a fine of $50,000 and imprisonment for six months. The Bill makes the assets of anybody involved in kidnapping liable to confiscation or forfeiture. It would also allow for the evidence of pecuniary resources or property of an accused person, for which the accused cannot satisfactorily account, to be taken as corroborating evidence of any witness in the trial or enquiry that the accused person has received the ransom for the release of a kidnapped person. The Bill makes kidnapping a non-bailable offence. And it allows the Director of Public Prosecutions to apply to a Judge in Chambers for an order to inspect books, accounts, receipts, vouchers or other documents where he considers evidence of the commission of an offence, conspiracy to commit, or an attempt to commit, or an abetment of that offence is likely to be found in such documents.

A person who fails to produce such documents would be liable to a fine of $100,000 and to imprisonment for one year. The DPP can also apply to a Judge in Chambers for an order to obtain information requiring:
1) a person to furnish a sworn statement enumerating all property belonging to or possessed by him, his spouse or child and specifying the date on which such properties were acquired;
2) a person to furnish a sworn statement of monies and /or properties disposed of by him during the period specified in the order;
3) a person to furnish a sworn statement enumerating all property belonging to or possessed by him, where the DPP has reasonable grounds to believe that such information may be relevant to an investigation or proceedings. A fine of $100,000 would be imposed on a person who wilfully neglects or fails to comply with an order.