It is no secret that sometimes the justice machine fails, and completely innocent people are brought to justice. This is indeed a significant problem, since a person could not fully realize his right to judicial protection. However, a completely different matter is obtained in those cases when it is found out that a knowingly innocent person has been brought to criminal responsibility. In this case, the case must be attributed to the crimes identified in an independent chapter of the Special Part of the Criminal Code - crimes against justice. What is the article that says about bringing a knowingly innocent to criminal responsibility? What kind of punishment is imposed for such a crime?
Feature of crimes against justice
In order for the state to function normally, it must necessarily have judicial bodies that carry out their tasks through legal proceedings. This is a special feature that is specific to such organs. It markedly distinguishes the organs of justice and separates them from all other branches of government. That is why crimes against justice, such as bringing a knowingly innocent person to criminal or administrative responsibility, are so dangerous because they undermine the people's faith in power, as well as in the presence of a legal and democratic state in the country.
In addition, the presence of such crimes suggests that officials who, according to their duties, must fight crime, abuse their status and impede the ability of ordinary citizens to exercise their rights.
History reference
For the first time, the concept of crimes aimed at counteracting justice began to be singled out as a separate group only in the middle of the 16th century. Of course, such definitions as bringing a knowingly innocent person to criminal liability did not even arise, since as such the stage of the preliminary investigation did not exist at all. At this time, at all stages of the trial, direct judicial authority was vested exclusively in judicial officials, who, even in the event of an error? according to Sudebnik? considered innocent.
The first attempts to introduce liability for bringing an innocent to criminal liability began only in 1649, when the Council Code was published. A sentence was also imposed - the judge should be browing.
Then over the next several centuries, there were attempts to introduce some decrees that related to crimes against justice. However, it should be noted that in them it is impossible to find a chapter that would be a prototype of the current article 299 of the Criminal Code.
Soviet period
With the fall of imperial Russia, many laws have been changed quite a lot. The system of crimes against justice was also affected. First of all, it is worth noting that such acts were not isolated at all and were divided into several chapters. It is also worth noting that the norms that would establish a punishment for bringing a knowingly innocent person to criminal liability were not at all in either the 1922 Criminal Code or the 1926 Criminal Code.
It was first developed only by 1960, appearing in article 176 in the chapter “Crimes against justice”. For such a crime, imprisonment was assumed for a term of up to 3 years in those cases if the person was brought in by the inquiry officer, investigator or prosecutor. It also identified qualifying characteristics that exacerbated the punishment. The punishment for such crimes was noticeably greater - up to 10 years.
The legislative framework
Currently, the punishment for bringing a knowingly innocent person to criminal liability is defined in article 299 of the Criminal Code. Last time it was edited by Federal Law No. 436 of 12/19/2016. Now consider it in more detail:
- Part one of this article refers directly to a simple punishment for holding an innocent person accountable. For such an act provides for the sending of people to prison for up to 7 years.
- The second part stipulates that if the same act was committed in respect of crimes involving grave or especially grave social harm, then in this case imprisonment will be for a term of 5 to 10 years.
It should be noted that the corpus delicti specified in this article is special in relation to abuse of authority or abuse of authority. Thus, acts punishable under Article 299 are considered grossly violating the constitutional rights of a Russian citizen, since it can cause serious property and personal damage to a knowingly innocent person.
Object of crime
To understand this crime, it is first necessary to identify the object of prosecution of the obviously guilty person. It is generally accepted that the public danger of crimes against justice is quite high, since they undermine the authority of law enforcement agencies and also cause irreparable harm to the victim (a person can be subjected to both physical, property and moral harm, which cannot be simply blotted out by simply terminating the criminal case or acquittal).
Thus, it can be said that the object of this crime is relations that ensure the normal activity of bodies engaged in law enforcement in the exercise of their powers in the field of justice. However, it is customary to highlight another additional object - the legitimate rights and interests of a citizen and a person. Based on this, the victim can be any natural person who has been prosecuted in the case when it was known that he was innocent. But here comes the first place to find out what the legislator means by the term “knowingly innocent”, since it is not legislatively fixed anywhere.
Objective side
Another important point in finding out what constitutes a crime related to bringing knowingly innocent to criminal responsibility is the allocation of the objective side. As you can understand, the disposition formulated was quite unsuccessful, since no theoretical justification exists anywhere, although in practice the term is used quite often. Now, processors practically equate the objective side with the concept of attracting a person as an accused, since it is customary to interpret this in judicial practice. Although it is worth noting that there are other interpretations of this concept, such as the fact that indictment cannot yet be considered an implementation of the existing rule. However, the High Court is still inclined to believe that it is impossible to identify identified as innocent and bring to criminal responsibility.
Subjective side
Now we’ll better consider the subjective side of this crime. First of all, it is worthwhile to understand that this act can be committed only intentionally and with direct intent, since the article explicitly states that there was a deliberate knowledge. That is, the subject had to understand from the outset that there was a public danger in his actions, and he also realized that the person he wants to prosecute is not guilty of the charge against him, but still wants to attract him.
Indirect intent in this situation is completely excluded, since the intellectual and volitional moments are directed directly to the fulfillment of the above actions. However, it is also worth considering that if the person who prosecuted the innocent simply did not realize that he was acting illegally, since he was mistaken in evaluating the actions and really considered him guilty, then there is no corpus delicti.
Motives
Attraction of knowingly innocent to administrative responsibility, as well as to criminal, is always committed with a certain motive. However, any motive does not affect qualification at all, although it is recognized by the court. So, depending on the motive, the judge may well change the sentence. The most common motives in such a situation may be careerism, revenge, misunderstood service interests, envy, self-interest, desire to help a loved one avoid responsibility or other interest.
Purpose of crime
The goal of convicting a knowingly innocent person almost always follows directly from the motive. Most often, an official who, because of his low qualifications, simply does not want to really find the guilty person, but at the same time wants to climb the career ladder and in this way tries to get a promotion or a reward for a good job. However, in addition to this, a bribe that was given for such actions may be involved in the case, then article 290 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation is also taken into account.
Conclusion
One of the most dangerous crimes against justice is the prosecution of a knowingly innocent person. As has already been found out, the object of this act is based on the correlation of the field of justice and the guarantee of the rights and interests of citizens of the country. But the objective side is that the rights of a person who did not commit any crimes, but was subjected to criminal liability, were violated. Such actions by the official lead to the fact that the victim was subjected to grave consequences - conviction, imprisonment, and moral harm. Moreover, due to such actions, law enforcement agencies lose their unstable authority, and the population begins to feel tension in society and insecurity. Any state should avoid this for normal functioning.