Lawyer under Article 126 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (Kidnapping)

New edition of Art. 126 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation

1. Kidnapping -

shall be punishable by forced labor for a term of up to five years or imprisonment for the same term.

2. The same act committed:

a) by a group of persons by prior conspiracy;

b) has become invalid;

c) with the use of violence dangerous to life or health, or with the threat of such violence;

d) using weapons or objects used as weapons;

e) in relation to a known minor;

f) in relation to a woman who is known to the perpetrator to be pregnant;

g) in relation to two or more persons;

h) for selfish reasons, -

shall be punishable by imprisonment for a term of five to twelve years, with or without restriction of freedom for a term of up to two years.

3. Acts provided for in parts one or two of this article, if they:

a) committed by an organized group;

b) has become invalid;

c) caused by negligence the death of the victim or other grave consequences, -

shall be punishable by imprisonment for a term of six to fifteen years, with or without restriction of freedom for a term of up to two years.

Note. A person who voluntarily frees a kidnapped person is exempt from criminal liability unless his actions contain another crime.

Lawyer Antonov A.P.

Kidnapping means the capture and movement of the abducted person to some place that he cannot leave on his own. The crime is considered completed after the capture, even if everything else has failed.

Part 1 Art. 126 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation belongs to the category of crimes of medium gravity and provides for imprisonment for up to 5 years, this is the “lightest” offense. The punishment is even more severe if the person was kidnapped by an organized group or the kidnapped person died. Then the court can sentence you to 15 years in prison, and the minimum that can be “received” is 6 years. As an optional punishment, restriction of freedom for up to two years is applied to the main one.

Kidnapping is similar in a number of ways to other crimes, including less serious ones, for example Art. 127 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (illegal deprivation of liberty), and more serious ones, such as Art. 206 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (hostage taking). In addition, in order to be charged with kidnapping, sufficient evidence must be collected. Therefore, to defend against charges of kidnapping under Art. 126 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, it is advisable to seek the help of a lawyer in Samara who has experience in this category of cases.

If you or your relative or loved one are charged with Art. 126 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (kidnapping), you must immediately contact a lawyer under Art. 126 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation in Samara.

The sooner you invite a lawyer to participate in the case under Art. 126 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, the greater the likelihood that the outcome of the criminal case will have the minimum possible consequences for you.

Services of a lawyer in cases of kidnapping:

1) On-site consultation and further representation of the client’s interests in the police department and investigative authorities;

2) Legal advice in oral or written form in cases of kidnapping;

3) Collection of reliable evidence of the principal’s innocence, as well as the search for witnesses in favor of the principal;

4) Protection of the principal at the stage of pre-investigation check;

5) Appealing violations due to illegal actions or inactions of representatives of supervisory and law enforcement agencies;

6) Protection of the principal at the stage of preliminary investigation, collection of evidence and formation of the defense position. Prevention of illegal reclassification to a more serious part or article. Changing the preventive measure;

7) Representation of the interests of the principal in courts of various instances.

Sincerely, lawyer Anatoly Antonov, managing partner of the law firm Antonov and Partners.

Still have questions for your lawyer? Ask them right now here, or call us by phone in Moscow +7 (499) 288-34-32 or in Samara +7 (846) 212-99-71 (24 hours a day), or come to our office for a consultation (by pre-registration)!

Kidnapping from a criminal legal point of view

Any crime must have 4 components, different for each specific criminal act. Without at least one component, it is impossible to hold someone accountable.

Kidnapping is no exception; these elements for liability to arise must be:

The subject is the one who commits the crime. For the kidnapping of a person, the 14-year-old citizen who committed it is subject to criminal liability. The legislator considered that at this age a person is mature enough to understand the harm caused by this act. In addition, the person must be of sound mind.
The subjective side is the attitude of the criminal to the actions performed. For liability to arise, the abduction must be committed with direct intent. This means that the criminal is quite clearly aware of what he is doing, what dangerous consequences his actions may entail for society, and wants them to occur.
The object is the social relations that the crime causes harm. In the case under consideration, this is the freedom of a specific victim or victims in its physical expression. Abduction may have additional objects - property, health, life of the abducted person or his loved ones.
The objective side is the actions themselves committed by the offender, which define the crime.

According to the comments to the article, abduction is the secret or overt removal of a person against his will from the place where he is located or his usual habitat, followed by moving to another place with the purpose of detaining him there.

Compound

The subject may be a person who is at least 14 years old. This suggests that this crime is among the most serious. The subjective side of kidnapping is only direct intent (with indirect intent or other forms of guilt such a crime cannot be committed).

Now let’s talk about what signs of an act are mandatory objective signs of kidnapping. The immediate main object of this crime is the individual’s right to complete freedom to move in space and be in any place - in accordance with his own will. The objective side is active actions aimed at:

take possession of a living individual (capture him);
remove him from the place where he was at that moment;
move it to a certain place;
where it will be retained in the future.

Capture of a person can occur in a secret way, either openly (capture) or by deception (when the individual is lured into a certain room by misleading him and is subsequently held there).

The composition of this article is formal. This means that the crime is over at the moment of harm to social relations. It does not matter whether serious consequences occurred or not.

In the case of a crime committed without qualifying characteristics (Part 1 of Article 126) and with these characteristics (Part 2), social relations associated with the individual’s right to physical freedom suffer.

Clause “c” of Part 3 of Article 126 mentions the death of a captured person due to negligence or other grave consequences (for example, suicide of a detained person or his relatives, major material damage, etc.). Here we are already observing an element of material composition, since there are grave consequences affecting a person’s life, his health, property rights, etc.

Aggravating circumstances

The concept of kidnapping includes additional alternative features that are legally reflected as qualifying circumstances. Thus, the second part of the norm provides for liability for illegal restriction of people’s freedom committed:

by prior conspiracy by a group of persons;
together with violence dangerous to the life or health of people;
with the use of weapons;
regarding a minor victim or a woman with obvious signs of pregnancy;
regarding the group of victims;
for selfish reasons, that is, for the purpose of ransom.

If the criminal’s actions contain several aggravating circumstances of this category, then the term of punishment applied by the court cannot be greater than those specified in the sanction of the plot of this part. In this case, the punishment of the group that committed the crime by prior conspiracy is assigned taking into account the distribution of roles.

Responsibility for kidnapping committed for ransom is chosen taking into account selfish requirements. In this case, the ransom can be presented in the form of material assets or services and obligations.

The concept of this crime includes in a separate category of aggravating circumstances:

committed by an organized group acting by prior conspiracy;
if the actions resulted in the death of the kidnapped person or other serious consequences.

If causing grave consequences or death was the original goal, then the actions of the criminal will be qualified by several articles of the criminal code, and the sentence will be calculated based on the sanctions of the articles involved.

Release from liability

Despite the severe liability, the legislator has provided the opportunity to avoid punishment under certain conditions. This was done, on the one hand, in order to minimize the consequences for the victim, and on the other, to enable the erring citizen to realize his act and correct it as far as possible.

The conditions under which the perpetrator may not be punished are indicated in the note to Art. 126 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation:

voluntary release of the victim;
absence of other crimes committed by the kidnapper.

Release can be assessed as voluntary when the kidnapper had the opportunity to continue his criminal actions, but decided to release the victim. Why he decided this is not important.

A situation where a criminal releases a kidnapped person after fulfilling the conditions of release, for example, transferring money, even when he was unable to receive it, for example, was detained, is not considered voluntary release.

Types and qualifying characteristics

According to Article 126 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, the qualifying and specially qualifying features of this crime are as follows.

Part 2

P. "a". An act is considered as committed by a group of persons by prior conspiracy, when two (or more) persons agreed in advance to carry out an illegal act (at the stage of preparation for the abduction) and then took part in it. Participants are co-executors.
P. "v". With the use of violence dangerous to life and health - or with the threat of this violence.
Dangerous violence has the same characteristics as robbery (Article 162). The definition of this violence is given in the Resolution of the Plenum of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation dated December 27, 2002 No. 29. Paragraph 21 states that the essence of dangerous violence is that it resulted in the victim of a crime of grave or moderate gravity, but also minor harm to health (due to which the person suffered a short-term health disorder or a small but stable loss ability to work).
P. “g” – when a person is kidnapped using weapons or objects used as weapons.
We are talking about the actual use or attempted use of bladed weapons, gas or firearms. If it was simply demonstrated to intimidate, such an action also falls under this criterion. Items that are not weapons, but can be used as weapons, include any thing, from a hammer to a stone, a fork, a screwdriver, etc.
pp. “d” and “f” - the abduction of a known minor or a pregnant woman (provided that the attacker knew about the pregnancy). The concept of knowledge implies that the perpetrator reliably knows that the kidnapped teenager has not reached the age of majority.
P. “f” - kidnapping of two or more people. This clause will be applied both if the kidnapping of several people took place at the same time, and if the perpetrators kidnapped different people at different times and in different places.
P. “z” - when an individual is kidnapped for selfish motives. This means that by this act the perpetrator is trying to achieve his own material benefit (or for third parties) in one form or another. Here a combination of crimes may arise: for example, if a ransom is demanded from relatives, then the court qualifies the case under Article 126 and Article 163.

Part 3

P. “a” - the crime was committed by an organized group. Part 3 of Article 35 speaks about what such a group is. This is a stable group of people in which the accomplices agreed in advance among themselves on the joint execution of the act and then carried out what was planned.
P. “c” – kidnapping resulted through negligence in the death of the kidnapped person or other grave consequences. Harm to health, mental disorder of the victim and his relatives, the occurrence of mass unrest or clashes based on ethnic hatred, and much more can be considered as serious consequences.