New draft amendments to the so-called “specialist” COVID-19 by the Members of the Bureau of Justice, the introduction of a new countertype. According to Article 10d. draft law does not commit a crime, who to prevent COVID-19 infringes official obligations or existing rules if it acts in the social interest and without prejudice to those obligations or provisions, the action taken would not be possible or would be significantly impeded.
However, the content of the above provision is controversial because it assumes impunity of criminal action if it was motivated by countering COVID-19. It does not matter whether the breach of official duties or the applicable rules has resulted in effective countering COVID-19.
The law quite generally specifies what should be understood by the term “anticipation” COVID-19”. According to the specific legislation, this will be all activities related to the eradication of infection, prevention, prevention and eradication of effects, including socio-economic diseases such as SARC-CoV-2.
Article 10d has been constructed in such a way that it applies not only to officials, but to any person who violates the rules in force, in order for the action to be motivated by countering COVID-19.
The level of generality of this provision makes the boundary between actual countering COVID-19 And his appearance is pretty thin.
In practice, it can be used to justify criminal activity. Suppose an entrepreneur acquires hygiene or ventilation equipment from theft and uses it in his business. From a legal point of view, such an entrepreneur commits a step-by-step crime for which he may be punished even to 5 years of imprisonment.
Assuming that this change has been introduced, such an entrepreneur will be able to explain to avoid criminal liability that the equipment or health care measures purchased prevent COVID-19, because it is able to provide better protection for its employees, while the fact that these items came from the theft allowed it to negotiate a lower than the market purchase price and thus could financially afford such improvements.
It also appears that, in this case, financial constraints would constitute a major obstacle to the fight against COVID-19.
It should be stressed that Article 10d will also apply to acts committed before its entry into force. According to Article 4(1) a criminal code, if at the time of the ruling a law other than at the time of the offence is committed, a new law shall apply; however, the law applicable previously should apply if it is more relative to the perpetrator.
The proposed change in reality can contribute to the increase in crime and, as it were, "whitewashing" of crimes already committed. It is difficult to clearly indicate the point of adopting this amendment.
From a parliamentary justification for the bill, we learn that “in an epidemic state caused by COVID-19 It is therefore often necessary to initiate suddenly over-standard actions, which are difficult to reconcile with their official duties and the current state of the law, and at the same time necessary to achieve the objective envisaged." Unfortunately, the project's authors did not give an example of a criminal act that would deserve impunity in the light of their regulations.