The State Duma Committee approved the exclusion of service in the authorities from the number of aggravating circumstances

The State Duma Committee on State Construction and Legislation approved bill on the exclusion from the list of aggravating circumstances of the commission of an intentional crime by an employee of the internal affairs body. The State Duma is recommended to adopt the law in the first reading.

The draft law was submitted to the State Duma on October 18, 2022 by Yury Sinelshchikov, a deputy from the Communist Party of the Russian Federation. According to the legislator, this circumstance in the commission of intentional crimes is nothing more than “actual discrimination” against employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

Then, as an argument in favor of the initiative, Mr. Sinelshchikov cited statistics from the Prosecutor General’s Office. According to him, the number of crimes among employees of all law enforcement agencies averages no more than 1% of the total number of crimes. At the same time, the deputy noted, less than a third of this percentage falls on the share of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. However, for what period the data are presented, Mr. Sinelshchikov did not specify.

The clause on “commission of an intentional crime by an employee of the internal affairs body” was introduced into the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation after the police reform in 2010. He became the fifteenth in the list of “aggravating circumstances”, along with “revenge”, “recidivism”, “a group of persons”, “motives of political hatred”, crimes against minors and others.

More details – in the publication “Kommersant” “Uniform Discrimination”.

Milena Kostereva