The State Duma Committee proposed to tighten responsibility for extremism
The State Duma Committee on State Building and Legislation on March 24 recommended to accept several government initiatives in the first reading, tightening responsibility for extremist crimes and simplifying the procedure for initiating criminal cases. In particular, it is proposed to cancel the prejudice under the article of the Criminal Code (Criminal Code) on the initiation of hatred, if the crime was accompanied by an excuse or propaganda of the use of violence or was committed by a group of persons. In addition, communities without a legal entity can now recognize extremist organizations.
Now criminal liability under Part 1 of Art. 282 of the Criminal Code (excitement of hatred or enmity, as well as humiliation of human dignity) occurs after holding accountable during the year under a similar Art. 20.3.1 of the Code of Administrative Offenses (Code of Administrative Offenses).
According to new amendments, administrative prejudice will not act if the crime was accompanied by an excuse or propaganda of the use of violence or was committed by a group of persons.
At the same time, increased measures of responsibility for the commission of these acts by a group of persons or by prior conspiracy were proposed (now only the “organized group” appears in this article), for this the punishment from a fine of 300-600 thousand rubles will threaten. to imprisonment for a term of three to six years.
At a meeting of the Committee of the Deputy Minister of Justice, Elena Ardabyeva brought statistics: more than 42% of cases under Art. 20.3.1 of the Code of Administrative Offenses in 2023 were aroused on the facts of justification or propaganda of the use of violence based on national, racial, religious affiliation. “Such acts have an increased public danger, in this regard, we propose to establish criminal liability for once the initiation of hatred, hostility, humiliation of human dignity, associated with the justification or propaganda of the use of violence,” the deputy minister explained.
The Chairman of the Committee Pavel Krasheninnikov (United Russia) asked if there was any statistics indicating the need to amend in Art. 282 of the Criminal Code right now. Mrs. Ardabyeva replied that the bill was developed on behalf of the president, which stated the need to “increase the level of criminal law protection of the fundamentals of the constitutional system of the Russian Federation”, in particular, by improving the mechanism of counteracting extremist crimes. According to the official, the order was specifically about the change in the 282nd article. Nevertheless, Mr. Krasheninnikov invited her to « prepare for the plenaric, see the statistics » to explain to the deputies « why this is important to society and what it would give. » “Such questions will be asked, and not always in a friendly form,” Unicorn honestly warned.
The committee also considered Amendments to Art. 282.2 of the Criminal Code (organization of activities of an extremist organization) and to the Criminal Procedure Code, allowing, by decision of the court, to include extremist communities in the list of such organizations that are not legal entities. These changes, Elena Ardabyeva explained, were prepared on behalf of the Security Council of the Russian Federation and correspond to another government bill – amendments to the law on countering extremism, which the Committee of the Duma on Security plans to consider March 26.
The amendments also say the possibility of recognizing an extremist any organization if one of its founders or participants is already found guilty of organizing an extremist community.
Recall that now the Ministry of Justice is a list of public and religious associations and other organizations in respect of which the court has made a decision on the liquidation or prohibition of activities that have entered into legal force. Now information about extremist communities will also be included in this list – this will happen in the event of an entry into force of the accusatory sentence for the commission of crimes under Art. 282.1 of the Criminal Code (organization of the extremist community). Presumably, the Duma will consider these bills in the first reading on April 1.
