CLOSE
Loading...
12° Nicosia,
03 October, 2025
 
Home  /  Comment  /  Opinion

Femicide and punishment

A life sentence cannot really mean for life, but it cannot mean 16 years in jail for certain heinous criminal behaviors either

Opinion

Opinion

by Ioanna Mandrou

A few days ago, there was some shocking news. An Egyptian court asked lawmakers to approve the live broadcast of the hanging of a man who stabbed a female university student to death. The idea was to deter similar crimes from happening in the future, making it clear that crimes involving female victims will be punishable by death in public view.

the state must ensure that the sentences imposed for serious crimes are served. For example, life imprisonment, the maximum sentence in all European countries, is a very heavy sentence...

Lately, in Greece, murders of women have taken on the characteristics of an epidemic. Dozens of women, young and old, have lost their lives at the hands of their husbands or partners. These heinous crimes have caused some people – some of them members of the justice system – to advocate for the death penalty to be reinstated. Oftentimes, relatives of victims angrily disapprove of the life sentence which is imposed in courts and demand the death penalty for the perpetrators.

But is the death penalty a penalty? Certainly not. Punishments have ceased to be a kind of revenge against the offender. They are punitive measures, which of course also involve a great moral reprehension that the law and society reserve for criminal behavior that ends the right to live or brutally insults a person’s personality.

But no matter how serious a crime, no matter how indignant and enraged we may be, we cannot go so far as to call for the reinstatement of the death penalty. The past is not the answer. On the other hand, however, the state must ensure that the sentences imposed by the courts for serious crimes are served. For example, life imprisonment, the maximum sentence in all European countries, is a very heavy sentence, as long as it is not completed in a few years.

A life sentence cannot really mean for life, but it cannot mean 16 years in jail for certain heinous criminal behaviors either. Amendments in recent years have attempted to improve the law so that lifers stay longer in prison. For example, the amendment that concerned the case of November 17 terrorist Dimitris Koufodinas, who is serving 11 life sentences, and its interpretation by the courts was correct. He should be released from prison after 25 years and not 20. In other words, the 20 years should apply to those serving one life sentence and not numerous terms.

The law can make such differentiations for other cases as well, such as femicide, to avoid leaving society with a sense that justice was not served – which would dilute society and democracy.

TAGS
Cyprus  |  Greece  |  femicide  |  murder  |  crime

Opinion: Latest Articles

You can describe what computers do, but not how they work. What seemed like knowledge collapses the moment someone asks for details. Photo credit: Unsplash

The things we think we know

If you want to know whether someone else really knows what they’re talking about, ask ''How'' not ''Why.''
Opinion
 |  OPINION
From donkeys to Mars and smartphones to AI. Are we still the same species at heart? Photo credit: AI

A new kind of human?

Generational divides, technological leaps, and the reshaping of human identity.
Paris Demetriades
 |  OPINION
AP photo

Genocide

Does our government even understand the word ''genocide''...
Pavlos Xanthoulis
 |  OPINION
Were they sleepwalking, or did they fully grasp that they were living through something terrifying and singular, but simply had no way to respond? Photo courtesy of Alexis Ugolini Facebook

Are we sleepwalking?

Momentous and inexplicable things are happening, catching us off guard every day.
Alexis Papachelas
 |  OPINION
Don’t get me wrong…but…

Don’t get me wrong…but…

Cyprus welcomes U.S. expertise, but maybe it’s time to invest in prevention, local talent, and common sense closer to home. ...
Shemaine Bushnell Kyriakides
 |  OPINION
X