A knowingly false denunciation: the nature of the crime and responsibility

A deliberately false denunciation is one of the crimes directed against justice. It harms the activities of one or all of the law enforcement agencies, namely, the court, criminal investigation bodies or other structures. What is the composition of this crime and what kind of punishment is waiting for the person who committed it? Our article will tell about it.

Object of Crime

This mandatory feature of the composition contains a description of what harm is caused by the committed wrongful act. As already mentioned above, a deliberately false denunciation seriously damages the normal, lawful activities of law enforcement agencies. In addition, harm is also caused to the rights and interests of citizens who are involved in the criminal process. Thus, for example, Article 306 "Knowingly false denunciation" in Part 2 establishes a special, increased responsibility for such an act if it was directly connected with the accusation of the person that he committed a grave or especially grave unlawful act. Undoubtedly, in this case there is a serious violation of the rights of a disgraced person.

The objective side

Typically, a description of this feature contains a separate article of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. A knowingly false denunciation is always committed by action. It is a deliberate communication of incorrect, invalid information about a committed, prepared or invented crime, as well as about persons who took part in it, or in reality have nothing to do with it. Such information should be communicated to the court, authority or criminal prosecution.

The subjective side

A knowingly false denunciation is always committed intentionally and for a specific purpose. A person who carries out such a crime is always aware of what he is doing and is willing to break the law in this way. The goal in this case is alternative. There are 2 options. Either the perpetrator wishes that there has been a commencement of the case of the committed crime without necessary and sufficient reasons, or wants to smear the innocent and help to be mistakenly brought to justice.

Subject of crime

A person can be brought to punishment for deliberately false denunciation only if, at the time of the commission of this crime, it reached the age of sixteen and was sane. That is, the offender must fully understand the significance of his behavior and guide the actions.

Qualifying signs

Article of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, which contains the composition of this crime, includes three parts. The first of them describes the common signs of the deed. The remaining parts contain qualifying signs. Responsibility in these norms is established more stringent than in the general case. To the qualifying signs of deliberately false denunciation, the legislator refers to the person's accusation of committing grave crimes, as well as the artificial creation of evidence by the criminal.

Punishment

Responsibility for such a crime is established as an alternative. This means that the court, when passing sentence, has the right to choose from several options the punishment that is most appropriate in each case. So, for knowingly false denunciation a person can be fined, or sent to compulsory or forced labor, or even deprived of liberty or arrested. The penalty depends on the degree of guilt and other facts relevant to the case.