Lawyers see contradictions in criminal article on non-informing police of crime and legal culture in Caucasus

When commenting on the first criminal case opened under Article 205.6 of the Russian Criminal Code, adopted in the framework of the "Irina Yarovaya's package of laws", lawyers have noted that the practice of criminal prosecution for failure to inform the police of a crime sharpens the contradictions between the law and the norms of legal culture and the specifics of tribal relations accepted among residents of the Caucasus.

On January 16, it became known about institution of a criminal case in Chechnya under Article "Failure to inform authorities about a person, who according to reliably known information is plotting, committing, or has committed a crime of terrorist nature" (Article 205.6 of the Russia Criminal Code). The Article was introduced to the Russian Criminal Code after the adoption of the legal antiterrorist amendments, known as the "Irina Yarovaya's package of laws". The above criminal case involves as a defendant a resident of Grozny, whose friend, according to investigators, was going to leave for Syria to take part in the hostilities.

Timofey Shirokov, a Moscow advocate, who used to work in Chechnya, treats the verdict pronounced in Grozny as a test step to run a practice of persecution for failure to inform the police of a crime.

"In relation to residents of Northern Caucasus, the law may become the next step in breaking their mentality, since Caucasian people always treated reporting to the police as a shameful act," the lawyer told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

"For the sake of fairness, it should be noted that the new criminal article cannot be applied against closest family members, including fathers, mothers, spouses, children, brothers and sisters. Meanwhile, cousins can be brought to justice. It is clear that in the Caucasus, the concept of closest blood relatives is a little wider than in the central part of Russia," added the advocate.

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.