Legal Commission considers bill punishing prostitutes' clients

A bill proposed by the Liberal Party punishing the purchase of sexual services was approved today by the Parliament's Legal Commission, with some Commission members seeking improvements to the bill until it is submitted to Parliament for consideration, Info-Prim Neo reports. The Liberals in particular argue that the measure will help to curb sex tourism. “If we look at the data provided by the Interior Ministry, we'll see that Moldova is becoming a brothel. An increasing number of foreign tourists choose Moldova for this purpose,” said Liberal MP Valeriu Munteanu. Under the current legislation, only the prostitute is punished and the client usually gets off scot-free. If the measure is introduced, clients will face fines of up to 3,000 lei. Democrat Adrian Candu said that the bill should more clearly define the notions of sexual services and acquisition of sexual services, and should provide more procedural safeguards to protect innocent persons. “I wouldn't want this to degenerate to police misconduct, especially with foreigners. Suppose a foreign visitor buys a girl a coffee without knowing she's a prostitute. Who can guarantee that he's not arrested by the police and fined without being actually guilty?”, asked Adrian Candu. Lib-Dem Tudor Deliu expressed his suspicion that the measure could tacitly encourage prostitution. Mihai Ghimpu, the leader of the Liberal Party, replied that, on the contrary, the awareness of the punishment would deter clients and consequently diminish prostitution. The authors of the bill claim that the measure to punish clients was introduced in a number of European countries, such as Sweden, Norway or Iceland, halving the number of prostitution cases.