Dokument #1212474
IRB – Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada (Autor)
Article 109 of the Penal Code
prescribed a penalty of six months to five years in prison, or
confiscation of personal possessions, for anyone who attempted to
leave Czechoslovakia illegally. The sentence was also passed in
absentia on people who had succeeded in leaving the country
without permission or who exceeded the time limit on their travel
abroad (Amnesty International 1986, 7).
On 13 December 1989, the Federal Assembly
approved an amendment to the Penal Code which decriminalized
the crime of "illegally leaving the republic" and left only the
crossing of the borders with the use of force or threat of force as
punishable (FBIS 1989, FBIS-EEU-89-239).
Bibliography
Amnesty International. The
Imprisonment of Persons Seeking to Leave a Country or to Return to
Their own Country (London, 1986), p. 7.
"Approves Penal Code Amendments" CTK
[Prague], FBIS-EEU-89-239, 14 December 1989, p. 29.