Pubdate: Tue, 26 Mar 2002
Source: New York Times (NY)
Copyright: 2002 The New York Times Company
Contact:  http://www.nytimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/298
Author: Victor Homola
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/af.htm (Asset Forfeiture)

GERMANY: GOOD NEWS FOR CRIMINALS

The country's highest court has ruled that a law allowing the state 
to take all of a criminal's assets as part of his punishment was 
unconstitutional. The law, passed in 1992, did not set an upper limit 
for punishment and thus was so vague that it did not meet the 
constitutional requirement to be clear, the court said. The ruling 
came in the case of a convicted drug trafficker who in 1994 was 
sentenced to three and a half years in prison and an additional 
$271,000 fine that came close to the value of all his assets.
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