ST 309 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.
1. Bribing a witness, a victim for the purpose of giving false testimony, or an expert, specialist for the purpose of giving a false conclusion or false testimony, as well as a translator for the purpose of making an incorrect translation, is punishable by a fine in the amount of up to eighty thousand rubles or in the amount of wages or other income of the convicted person for a period of up to six months, or compulsory work for a period of up to four hundred eighty hours, or correctional labor for a period of up to two years, or arrest for a period of up to three months.
2. Forcing a witness, a victim to give false testimony, an expert, a specialist to give a false conclusion or a translator to carry out an incorrect translation, as well as forcing these persons to evade testifying, combined with blackmail, threats of murder, harm to health, destruction or damage property of these persons or their relatives - is punishable by a fine in the amount of up to two hundred thousand rubles, or in the amount of the wages or other income of the convicted person for a period of up to eighteen months, or by forced labor for a term of up to three years, or by arrest for a term of three to six months, or imprisonment for a term of up to three years.
3. The act provided for in part two of this article, committed with the use of violence that is not dangerous to the life or health of these persons, is punishable by forced labor for up to five years or imprisonment for the same term.
4. Acts provided for in parts one or two of this article, committed by an organized group or with the use of violence dangerous to the life or health of these persons, are punishable by imprisonment for a term of three to seven years.
What is the article of the Criminal Code about?
The article sets out the responsibility for bribing witnesses, experts or specialists.
It has 4 parts:
- The first talks about punishment for bribing a victim to give false testimony, a specialist to give false conclusions, and translators to give an incorrect translation.
- Part 2 of Article 309 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation specifies punishment for coercing witnesses or experts to give false testimony.
- The third talks about punishment for a crime committed with the use of non-life-threatening violence.
- In the fourth - for an act committed by a group or with the use of violence dangerous to health.
Basic provisions
The Criminal Code of the Russian Federation calls putting pressure on a witness a serious crime, which is punishable by a fine, work, and arrest. For coercion to give false or evasion to give true testimony against the background of blackmail, damage to property, the following are used: fine, forced labor, arrest, colony.
If a crime is committed with violence, then the criminals receive forced labor or arrest. If violence causes danger to life, the act is committed by conspiracy, then the perpetrators are liable in the form of imprisonment.
Types of punishments and terms
Bribery of witnesses or experts is punishable by:
- a fine of up to 80 thousand rubles or six months’ income;
- compulsory work for 480 hours;
- correctional labor for 2 years;
- arrest for 3 months.
Forcing specialists or translators to give false testimony, blackmail, or threats are punishable by:
Methods of coercion to testify and liability under the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, Article 302
- a fine of up to 200 thousand rubles or income for 1.5 years;
- forced labor, a colony for 3 years;
- arrest for 3-6 months.
If the act is accompanied by violence, the perpetrators are imprisoned or forced to work for 5 years. If the violence is life-threatening, or the crime is carried out by an organized group, then the criminals receive prison terms of 3-7 years.
Criminal Code of the Russian Federation
Falsification of election documents, referendum documents, deliberately incorrect counting of votes or deliberately incorrect determination of the results of elections, referendums, violation of the secrecy of voting, if these acts were committed by a member of the election commission, initiative group or commission for holding a referendum, are punishable by a fine in the amount of five hundred to seven hundred minimum wages. the amount of remuneration or in the amount of wages or other income of the convicted person for a period of five to seven months or by imprisonment for a term of up to four years.
1. Illegal use of objects of copyright or related rights, as well as appropriation of authorship, if these acts caused large-scale damage, is punishable by a fine in the amount of two hundred to four hundred times the minimum monthly wage, or in the amount of the wages or other income of the convicted person for a period of two to four hundred times the minimum wage. four months, or compulsory labor for a term of one hundred eighty to two hundred and forty hours, or imprisonment for a term of up to two years.
Comments on Article 309
The main object is relationships that ensure the receipt of information without obstacles. It must be objective and verifiable in order to make legitimate, informed decisions.
Comments on the article:
- An additional object is the rights and interests of the persons from whom the information is obtained. These are witnesses, experts, victims, translators, specialists.
- The objective side is active actions of various forms. Depending on them, the level of danger and punishability of crimes is determined.
- Part 1 establishes responsibility for bribery of objects - transfer of money, property, provision of services to induce them to give incorrect information.
- Parts 2-4 of the article provide for a form of influence on the will of the participants - coercion. It can be applied to these individuals or their relatives.
- In the 2nd part, coercion is divided into types: threat of dissemination of defamatory information, degrading honor, disclosure of personal secrets.
To establish blackmail, it does not matter whether the criminal has such information or not - the main thing is that he can harm the victim. The threat must be real in the awareness of the perpetrator and the perception of the victim. The latter must have real reasons to fear its execution.
The composition is formal. The crime is completed at the moment the perpetrator commits the following actions:
- handing over money;
- provision of services;
- committing acts with intent to commit violence.
In parts 3 and 4 of the article, the objective side consists of coercion of real violence, non-life-threatening (causing physical pain without slight harm to health) or dangerous to health (mild, moderate, severe harm).
Crimes are completed when violence is used to comply with requirements for giving false testimony or conclusions. Grave harm is additionally qualified under 111 or 105 articles. Subject is a person over 16 years of age. The person understands the illegal nature of the demands or forms of influence, but wants the consequences of such actions to occur.
Crimes have a specific purpose - to obtain false testimony or conclusions. The motives are different (false justice, the desire to help relatives, revenge), but do not affect qualifications. In the 4th part, a qualified sign is established in the form of an organized group.
Rights and obligations of a witness in criminal proceedings according to the Code of Criminal Procedure of the Russian Federation, Article 56
The threat may go beyond the main composition, requiring qualification under 3-4 parts and other articles (309 for disseminating knowingly false information, 105 for carrying out a murder).
Article 302 qualifies actions to coerce witnesses by investigators or interrogators. If violence is revenge for fulfilling a public duty of justice, then the crime is classified under Articles 111-112 and 115-116 - as an act against the person. Life-threatening violence involves exposure that, if not stopped or stopped, would result in death or impairment. Additionally, under Article 116, a crime involving injury to health is qualified.
The elements of the crime must be distinguished from incitement to testify (Articles 307 and 308). The distinction is made on the objective side and the reception of influence in order to achieve a result. With incitement, this is a persuasion, a request, but not bribery or mental violence, as in the case of coercion. Incitement occurs if the person understands the inconsistency of the testimony. Under duress, this is not a prerequisite.
The 1st part describes crimes of minor gravity, the 2nd-3rd - medium, and the 4th - serious.
Subjective signs
The second group of elements is considered to be a set of characteristics: the personality characteristics of the criminal, his goals, motives, the nature of the guilt - all this will determine whether it is permissible to bring a particular person to justice or not.
The subject of the act in question is only a citizen, not an organization, who has reached the age of sixteen and is recognized as fully sane.
Regarding the subjective side, the procedure for establishing it is much more complicated.
This element reflects a person’s mental and psychological attitude to what he does, the danger his actions pose, and the final negative result. This perception of the situation is called guilt.
This attribute has two forms of existence, which also affects qualifications and measures of responsibility:
- Intent. It presupposes a person’s full awareness of his actions, an assessment of the negative consequences and the desire for their occurrence. That is, a person strives for a criminal result and does everything to achieve it. Intention can be direct or indirect, the difference is only in relation to the outcome of the offense, which may have a slight impact on the punishment.
- Carelessness. It also presupposes that the guilty person is fully aware of his actions. However, attitudes towards the consequences are changing. If the act of negligence occurs in the form of negligence, then the person did not foresee the negative result, but should have done so due to the circumstances. If in the form of frivolity, then the criminal knows what will happen after he commits the act, but without sufficient grounds for this he believes that the consequences will not occur.
Speaking about the crime associated with coercion to give false testimony and refusal of it, only direct intent is at work here.
Also, judicial practice in the Resolutions of the Plenum reflects the need to determine the goals of the criminal. It is important to establish the fact that the guilty person sought to obtain false testimony relating to a specific case. Threats, blackmail, violence without such a purpose will have a different qualification with the application of sanctions of another article of the law, for example, extortion.
Judicial practice under the article
The article is often used, since many influence witnesses or participants in the trial in order to change the outcome of the case or verdict.
Examples of cases:
- Citizen V. learned that his son was arrested for rape. He didn’t believe it and decided to talk to the injured party himself. At first V. was calm, but then, when he found out that the girl wanted to imprison his son for a maximum term, he became furious and began to threaten her with a knife so that she would abandon the case. They managed to stop him, the girl filed a lawsuit for threats and coercion to give false information. For this, V. received a fine and forced labor.
- Citizen M. had a husband who, being drunk, robbed a passerby and fled the scene of the crime. He reported to the police, and the criminal was quickly tracked down. M. decided to save him from custody and bribe an expert to declare him insane. The expert refused and told the investigation about this. M. received a fine.
- Citizen G. was arrested for fraud. While the case was being investigated, his accomplices decided to influence the investigator so that he would give false testimony, falsify evidence, and G. would receive a suspended sentence or be completely released. To do this, they kidnapped the investigator's wife and held her by force. The police managed to free her, all her accomplices were arrested, and they were given 6 years in prison for the totality of their acts.
What decisions are made under Article 309?
The article more often makes decisions of an accusatory nature. In 2022, it dealt with 57 cases, of which 20 cases each fell on the 2nd and 3rd parts, and the least - on the fourth (4 cases). Of these, 15 people received prison sentences, 14 received suspended imprisonment, 25 received a fine, 2 received correctional sentences, and 1 received compulsory labor. Another 1 was declared mentally insane.
VII International Student Scientific Conference Student Scientific Forum
I said that a socially dangerous act can appear in two forms: in action and inaction. A criminal act is a socially dangerous, but conscious, volitional and active behavior of a person. From the above definition, we can say that a person consciously acts this way, knowing at the same time that certain consequences may occur.
For example: Private prosecutor Grishakina S.A. appealed to the magistrate with a statement asking to prosecute E.P. Meleshina, who on December 12, 2012 at 11.00 o’clock. in the premises of the administration of the Novoyamsky rural settlement, she accused her of calling her “The Enemy of the People”, accused her of not carrying out work to clean the road in the winter, and also of the fact that in the village. The Novoyamskaya Sloboda House of Culture is closed and no events are held. Believes that by disseminating these statements by Meleshin E.P. undermines her reputation and authority as the Head of the Novoyamsk rural settlement, discredits her honor and dignity.
