The lawyer explained what threatens Akhedzhakova for false denunciations

Law enforcement agencies are increasingly receiving applications from citizens demanding to check this or that well-known (or not so) person. But there are many cases when “vigilant citizens” took their words out of context or even attributed to them what they did not say, and demanded that unreliable Russians be recognized as foreign agents, and a criminal case be opened against them.

How to be in such situations to law enforcement officers? And most importantly – is it possible to protect yourself from false denunciations? The MK columnist asked about this from the former investigator for especially important cases of the TFR, lawyer Andrei Grivtsov.

– Law enforcement agencies today receive a lot of messages about certain people in whose actions they see signs of sedition. Are law enforcement agencies obliged to respond to all such appeals?

– As a general rule, verification should be carried out on any report of a crime committed. However, in some cases, when the message does not contain specific data on the signs of a crime (allowing to establish what exactly needs to be checked), the investigator may give the applicant an explanatory answer. In it, he will write that there are no grounds for conducting an audit.

This is practiced. At the same time, the investigators, refusing to conduct an audit, refer to the instructions on the procedure for considering citizens’ appeals and consider the message not as a statement about a crime, but as an ordinary appeal.

– In general, such appeals are accepted in the Investigative Committee, in the Ministry of Internal Affairs or in the FSB?

– Accept all. And if a person was denied in one structure, theoretically he can go to another. There is no ban.

– How should the investigator behave if he sees that the appeal is clearly just far-fetched? If it is obvious that it is caused by the desire of the applicant to harm a particular person?

– In this case, having established that the applicant has knowingly provided false information, the investigator may, simultaneously with the decision to refuse to initiate a criminal case on the application, initiate a criminal case on the fact of a knowingly false denunciation.

At the same time, a mandatory criterion for initiating a criminal case on a knowingly false denunciation should be not just establishing the falsity of the reported information, but confirming that the applicant was knowingly aware that he was misleading law enforcement agencies.

This is a rather difficult circumstance to prove, so there are not so many cases of deliberately false denunciation. In most cases, everything ends with the conclusion that the applicant was mistaken or gave an incorrect legal assessment of some facts in his application, which was not confirmed.

– Can the investigator himself initiate cases under article 306 of the Criminal Code “False denunciation” in such cases?

– Yes, the investigator can independently initiate a criminal case under this article. Such actions are within its powers.

– Is it easy to investigate a case under such an article and prove guilt?

– Not easy enough, because, as I said, it is necessary to establish a sign of the deliberate falsity of the statement. However, this does not mean that the deliberate falsity cannot be proven. For example, you can try to detect and seize the applicant’s correspondence in which he discusses a deliberately false denunciation or tells someone that the facts set out in the application are fictitious.

– What to do in cases where the applicant relied on posts on the Internet that turned out to be fake? A person might not know that they are fake. Take, for example, the story of the actress Leah Akhedzhakova. When was the libel case filed? Akhedzhakova victim, does this automatically indicate the recognition of seditious accounts as fake? Should the one who writes the statements check the accuracy of his accusations?

– In this case, if it is not proven that the applicant knowingly knew that the posts were published from a fake account, a decision will be made against him to refuse to initiate a criminal case on the fact of a knowingly false denunciation.

The applicant has no obligation to conduct an independent investigation and verify the facts obtained for authenticity, this is the work of law enforcement agencies.

However, I would advise you to take a responsible attitude to the filing of any statements about a crime committed, at least thinking that serious work should be carried out by law enforcement officers to verify each statement, distracting them from the work of investigating and solving other crimes.

In addition, I would be guided by the principle: do not do to another what you would not want to receive in relation to yourself. It cannot be ruled out that if the mass mailing of statements about a crime becomes a habit among Russians, in the future the applicant himself will have to explain his innocence based on a similar statement against him, received from some other person.

– What threatens the creators of fake accounts if they become the reason for the trial and unreasonable denunciation?

– If it is established that these accounts actually posted some messages that are interpreted by law enforcement agencies as criminal (for example, discrediting the armed forces of the Russian Federation), a criminal case should be initiated.

During a criminal investigation, a person who posted a message on behalf of another person may be held criminally liable for the content of the message. Technically, it will not be so difficult to establish who, when and from what technical means posted information in a particular account. Therefore, I would not recommend engaging in such “jokes”, since they can threaten the “joking” with serious punishment.

– How, in principle, can people protect themselves from false denunciations? Indeed, in theory, anyone can create a fake page on behalf of someone else, publish criminal information there.

– There is only one option – to monitor the appearance of fake pages and demand from the social networks where they are posted to immediately delete them. In the event that a message is posted on the page that discredits you, it is advisable to immediately notify the law enforcement agencies about this, saying that you have nothing to do with its placement.

– Is there a threat that law enforcement agencies will get bogged down in their denunciations?

– Certainly! And that is why a deliberately false denunciation is assessed by the state as a crime.

The work of verifying any statement of a crime is time-consuming, requires significant time and material costs. If this statement is deliberately false, the state bears all these costs in vain. That is why it is so important to correctly assess any deliberately false statement about a crime and give a legal assessment of the actions of the perpetrator.