The Duma in the first reading adopted a bill that will allow security forces to be given more lenient punishments in criminal cases

State Duma deputies in the first reading adopted a bill that will allow security forces to be given less severe punishments for crimes. It is expected that the status of an internal affairs officer will no longer be considered an aggravating circumstance when sentencing. The relevant information was published on the website of the lower house of parliament.

The bill proposes amendments to the Criminal Code - if the initiative is finally adopted, clause “o” will be removed from Article 63 of the Criminal Code, which contains a list of aggravating circumstances: “Committing an intentional crime by an employee of an internal affairs agency.”

This will entail a change in judicial practice: crimes committed by representatives of internal affairs bodies will be assessed in the same way as crimes committed by ordinary citizens.

Clause “o” was introduced into Article 63 of the Criminal Code in 2010. According to the authors of the bill, it promotes “discrimination against employees of internal affairs bodies in comparison with employees of other government agencies classified as law enforcement agencies.” At the same time, in 2011, the Constitutional Court ruled that this provision of the Criminal Code does not in any way violate the principle of equality of all before the law.

According to Petr Khromov, senior lawyer of the Team Against Torture, the real purpose of the bill is to create preferences for security forces. “As our organization previously noted, police officers are still often given suspended sentences. If the bill is adopted, then, in conjunction with other initiatives, it will obviously affect the number of sentences with real imprisonment for employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs,” he told Advokatskaya Street.