MAKARATZIS v. GREECE JUDGMENT 19 II. RELEVANT DOMESTIC LAW AND PRACTICE 23. The relevant provisions of the Criminal Code read as follows: Article 308 § 1 (a) “Intentional infliction of bodily harm on another person ... shall be punishable by up to three years’ imprisonment ...” Article 309 “Where the act punishable under Article 308 has been committed in a way which could have endangered the victim’s life or caused him grievous bodily harm, imprisonment of at least three months shall be imposed.” 24. Section 14 of Law no. 2168/1993 provides: “Anyone who uses a gun ... while committing a serious crime or lesser offence of which he is subsequently convicted shall be punished by a term of imprisonment of at least three months to be added to the sentence imposed for that offence.” 25. At the material time, the use of firearms by law-enforcement officials was regulated by Law no. 29/1943, which was enacted on 30 April 1943 when Greece was under German occupation. Section 1 of that statute listed a wide range of situations in which a police officer could use firearms (for example in order “to enforce the laws, decrees and decisions of the relevant authorities or to disperse public gatherings or suppress mutinies”), without being liable for the consequences. These provisions were modified by Article 133 of Presidential Decree no. 141/1991, which authorises the use of firearms in the situations set forth in Law no. 29/1943 “only when absolutely necessary and when all less extreme methods have been exhausted”. Law no. 29/1943 was criticised as “defective” and “vague” by the Public Prosecutor of the Supreme Court (see Opinion no. 12/1992). Senior Greek police officers and trade unions have called for this legislation to be updated. In a letter to the Minister of Public Order dated April 2001, the National Commission for Human Rights (NCHR), an advisory body to the government, expressed the view that new legislation which would incorporate relevant international human rights law and guidelines was imperative (NCHR, 2001 Report, pp. 107-15). In February 2002 the Minister of Public Order announced that a new law would shortly be enacted, which would “safeguard citizens against the reckless use of police weapons, but also safeguard police officers who will be better informed as to when they can use them”. 26. In the summer of 2002, a group called the “Revolutionary Organisation 17 November” was dismantled. That group, established in