
FIANNA FÁIL HAVE proposed the introduction of new legislation that would see individuals found guilty of involvement in tiger kidnappings face a minimum of ten years in prison.
The party’s Chief Whip Seán Ó Fearghaíl today published The Criminal Justice (Aggravated False Imprisonment) Bill 2012, which he said would strengthen the law and protect families. Ó Fearghaíl said it would ” make it clear to the thugs behind such kidnappings that the State is serious about stopping them,” adding that many people working in finance and their families had been “subjected to terrifying ordeals by crime gangs”.
The bill, which amends the provisions of the Non-Fatal Offences Against the Person Act 1997 states:
“Aggravated false imprisonment” (commonly referred to as tiger kidnapping) means the false imprisonment of a person or persons for the purposes of coercing another (the victim) to commit or assist in, the commission of the offence of theft by holding the falsely imprisoned person or persons hostage as collateral until such time at the victim has met the demands of a criminal organisation.
Saying that his own family had experienced a tiger kidnapping “first hand”, and that he did not wish to see other families suffer the same ordeal, Ó Fearghaíl said that he believed Ireland’s laws regarding the issue could be much stronger.
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