16:10, 12 March 2024Source: 

The State Duma adopted in the first reading a bill that will exempt from criminal liability those who were mobilized and entered into a contract for military service during a “ special military operation ” or martial law. The text of the bill was published on the portal of the lower house of parliament.

The document introduces a number of new articles into the criminal code, describing the categories of those who will be exempt from criminal liability. These are those who:

• has committed a crime of minor or medium gravity and is under investigation (with the exception of certain crimes against public safety and against the foundations of the constitutional order and security of the state);
• is serving a sentence (with the exception of crimes against the sexual integrity of minors, terrorism, as well as against the foundations of the constitutional order and security of the state).

Crimes that cannot be exempted from criminal liability include, in particular, articles on extremism, terrorism, calls for violation of territorial integrity, treason and cooperation with an “undesirable organization.”

In addition, the bill allows those who already had a criminal record to be expunged at the time of concluding a contract or conscription for mobilization.

Mobilized or contract soldiers who meet the conditions will be released from criminal liability (and criminal record) either from the day they receive a state award for service or from the day of dismissal. Further control over their behavior is entrusted to the command of the military unit.

The bill, submitted to the State Duma on March 6, has three authors: the head of the Duma Committee on Legislation and State Construction Pavel Krasheninnikov, the head of the Defense Committee Andrei Kartapolov and Senator Andrei Klishas. When introducing it, Krasheninnikov explained that the current law on the exemption of military personnel from criminal liability, adopted in the summer of 2023, “is temporary.” “Practice has shown that the mechanism is working; the proposed norms can be systematized and included in separate articles of the Criminal Code and Criminal Procedure Code,” added Krasheninnikov.

The law will come into force after three readings in the State Duma, approval by the Federation Council and signature by the president.

(C)MEDUZA 2024