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Colombia raises penalty for acid attack to up to 50 years imprisonment

Xinhua, November 26, 2015 Adjust font size:

Colombian Senate on Wednesday raised the penalty for acid attack to up to 50 years of imprisonment.

According to the new legislation, those who harm others "using any kind of chemical agent" will be sentenced to 12 to 20 years in prison and those who cause "deformation or permanent damage, partial or total facial feature damage, either function or anatomic" in such attacks will have to spend 20 to 30 years in jail.

Penalty for such crime can be raised to up to 50 years imprisonment if the harm is especially serious, local media cited lawmakers as saying.

The new legislation, which was passed as the country marked the International Day of No Violence Against Women, also set punishments for those who illegally market the chemical substances that are frequently used in attacks against women.

Violence against women and girls has been on the rise in the past few years in Colombia and across Latin America. Some 107 women were killed so far this year in the capital city of Bogota alone. Endi