Sweden has scrapped plans to lower the age of criminal responsibility to 13 — SVT
The Swedish government has officially withdrawn a controversial legislative proposal that would have lowered the age of criminal responsibility for minors from 15 to 13.
Officials took this step due to a severe lack of support for the decision among members of parliament.
Instead of the previous plan, Swedish authorities have developed an alternative compromise proposal, which will now be put to a vote in the Riksdag.
The country’s Minister of Justice, Gunnar Strømmer, officially stated that the previous radical proposal did not receive the necessary number of votes among parliamentarians.
According to him, the executive branch will instead promptly introduce entirely new legislation.
This bill will set the minimum age of criminal responsibility for minors at 14.
“We propose lowering the age of criminal responsibility to 14 instead of 13. Here we see that we have a good chance of even securing a supermajority, and I believe this is a responsible way to resolve this issue,” the minister said.
It was previously planned that on Monday, the Swedish Riksdag would hold a final vote on the cabinet’s proposal to lower the age of criminal responsibility for serious crimes from 15 to 13.
These high-profile changes were expected to officially take effect as early as August. However, due to a lack of political consensus, the justice system reform had to be quickly revised.
This was reported by SVT.
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