20 CAP. 9.] CRIMINAL CODE Abolition of disabilities arising out of punishments. Amended by: VI.1871.2; XXI. 1971.5. 25. All disabilities arising, under the provisions of any law whatsoever, out of any punishment, are abolished. Right of civil action unaffected. Amended by: VIII. 1909.3. 26. (1) Any sentence to a punishment established by law shall always be deemed to have been awarded without prejudice to the right of civil action. (2) A pardon commuting or remitting a punishment lawfully awarded shall not operate so as to bar the civil action. Difference between punishment at the time of the offence and that at the time of trial. 27. If the punishment provided by the law in force at the time of the trial is different from that provided by the law in force at the time when the offence was committed, the less severe kind of punishment shall be awarded. Rules as to the serving of punishments. Amended by: XII. 1914.5. 28. (1) When more punishments of the same kind are awarded at the same time against the same offender, they shall be undergone one after the termination of the other; if they are of different kinds, the heavier punishment shall be undergone first, and immediately on its termination, the less severe punishment shall commence. (2) If any person, while actually undergoing one punishment, shall be sentenced to another punishment either of the same or of a less severe kind, he shall continue to undergo the first punishment, and immediately on its termination, he shall undergo the second punishment. (3) If the second punishment be heavier than the first, the person sentenced shall at once be subjected to the second punishment, and on its termination, he shall immediately revert to the first punishment and undergo the remainder thereof. (4) The punishment of interdiction shall take effect from the date of the sentence awarding such punishment. Suspended sentence of imprisonment. Added by: XXIX. 1990.3. Amended by: III. 2002.10. 28A. (1) Subject to subarticles (2) to (7) and to articles 28B to 28I, a court which passes a sentence of imprisonment for a term of not more than two years for an offence may order that the sentence shall not take effect unless, during a period specified in the order, being not less than one year or more than four years from the date of the order, the offender commits another offence punishable with imprisonment and thereafter a court competent to do so orders under article 28B that the original sentence shall take effect; and in this article and whenever it occurs in articles 28B to 28G and in article 28I "operational period", in relation to a suspended sentence, means the period so specified. (2) A court shall not deal with an offender by means of a suspended sentence unless the case appears to the court to be one in which a sentence of imprisonment would have been appropriate in the absence of any power to suspend such a sentence by an order under subarticle (1).