MOSCOW, September 27 - RAPSI. On Wednesday the parliament's lower house adopted a governmental law in the third reading which bans courts from issuing conditional sentences to repeat serious offenders and individuals who have committed grave crimes.

These amendments to the Criminal Code were drawn up by the Justice Ministry and specify the circumstances when a suspended sentence cannot be issued. In addition to an individual convicted for sexual abuse of minors under 14 years of age, suspended sentences cannot be handed down in cases where "a grave crime was committed during the probation period of a conditional sentence issued for an intentional offence, or within the unexpired term of a sentence in the event of a conditional early release."

A suspended sentence also cannot be issued for a recurrent crime of a serious nature.

The sponsors of the bill note that the proposed measures "are necessitated by the growing number of grave offences committed during probation or an unexpired term, and are aimed at combating habitual crime more effectively."