The deputies of the lower house of the Belarusian parliament have approved in the first reading the bill “On amendments to the codes of criminal liability”, the press service of the Belarusian legislative body reported this today, September 17.
It is reported that the bill, submitted by the President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko on August 7, 2024, provides for amendments to the Criminal Code, the Criminal Procedure Code and the Criminal Executive Code, as well as the Code of Administrative Offences and the Code of Procedure and Executive Administrative Offences. It is proposed, in particular, to revise the sanctions for 97 offences: it is proposed to supplement the sanctions for 65 offences with alternative, milder types of punishment, and it is proposed to adjust the sanctions for 32 offences in terms of the amount of punishment or the introduction of additional punishments of an alternative nature (fine, deprivation of rights).
In addition, restrictions are set for imposing prison sentences. In particular, it is proposed to determine that “single women and men who have children under the age of 14 or disabled children, disabled persons of group I, who have committed for the first time a crime that does not represent a great public danger, or a less serious crime that does not involve the use of violence or the threat of its use, shall not be sentenced to imprisonment (except for persons who have committed extremist crimes)”. A similar rule is proposed to be established in relation to persons who committed such crimes for the first time before the age of 18.
In addition, a differentiation of liability for the illegal circulation of means of payment is envisaged, taking into account the real social danger of the actions of each of the participants. In this case, it is proposed to maintain the criminal liability of citizens “who disseminate other people’s bank card data and to introduce administrative liability for persons who provide their own bank card data, as well as to transfer certain crimes to cases of public-private prosecution. : it is proposed to classify as cases of public-private prosecution the crimes of violation of traffic regulations or operation of vehicles, which through negligence led to serious bodily injury and committed by relatives of the person affected by the crime”.
Changes are also planned in the area of criminal liability for drug offences. It is proposed to consolidate alternative and lighter penalties in the form of “arrest (for acquisition or possession of drugs without the purpose of selling them) and restriction of liberty (for single cases of drug selling)”. It is also planned to reduce the lower limit of the sentence for selling drugs as part of an organised group from 10 to 8 years in prison.
It is important to expand the range of crimes for which citizens of Belarus will be held liable if they are committed outside the country. This list, in particular, includes crimes of a terrorist nature, discrediting Belarus, insulting or slandering the president, and desecration of state symbols.
