Leaders strengthen criminal code provisions
A Navajo police officer closely keeps watch on two men who lie handcuffed on the ground early in early February 2014 after executing a search warrant in Shiprock. (Times photo - Donovan Quintero)
WINDOW ROCK
It is now against the law to assault Navajo Nation police officers, according to amendments to the Criminal Code that President Ben Shelly signed into law Monday.
Amendments to Title 17 of the Navajo Nation Code also strengthen sentencing for offenders of tribal law. Some of the amendments also reinstate criminal laws such as imprisonment and fines for a number of offenses that were decriminalized in 2000.
“This is good law,” said Shelly in a press release from his office Monday.
The Navajo Nation Council passed it Nov. 13 by a vote of 10-4.
According to language in the bill, amendments were made for enforcement, general provisions, sentencing, offenses and penalties.
The 132-page bill also includes amendments that correspond with changes in makeup of the Navajo Nation Council and its standing committees, from an 88 to 24-member body.
Highway 264,
I-40, WB @ Winslow