Commentary to article 18. Criminal liability of persons who have committed a crime while intoxicated The Criminal Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan

     A person who commits a crime in a state of intoxication caused by the use of alcohol, narcotic drugs or other intoxicating substances is not exempt from criminal liability.      

The commented article regulates the issues of bringing to criminal responsibility a person who has committed a crime not only under the influence of alcohol, as stipulated in the previous Criminal Code of the Kazakh SSR, but also narcotic and toxic. In this case, the person must be in a state of physiological intoxication. With physiological intoxication, the functioning of inhibitory processes of nervous activity and self-control are weakened. However, a person who is intoxicated remains in contact with reality and his actions are motivated.      

By consuming alcohol, a person voluntarily puts himself in a state of severe intoxication, which, although it disrupts mental processes, is not a painful condition that occurs against the will of the person.      

Moreover, on the basis of paragraph "m" of Part 1 of Article 54 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan, the commission of a crime under the influence of alcohol, drugs or substance abuse may be recognized as a circumstance aggravating criminal liability. The court has the right, depending on the nature of the crime, not to recognize this circumstance as aggravating.      

Any subject who has reached the age of criminal responsibility and does not suffer from a profound mental disorder is able to anticipate the effects of alcohol (narcotic drugs, toxic substances) on mental activity and behavior, therefore, except in cases of pathological intoxication, a state of physiological intoxication should neither mitigate responsibility, nor even release from it.      

This norm does not refer to exceptional conditions associated with pathological intoxication or delirium tremens, which are considered a temporary mental disorder and form one of the signs of the medical criterion of insanity.      

Pathological intoxication mainly manifests itself in two forms: epileptoid and paranoid.      

In the epileptoid form of pathological intoxication, a person has a distorted perception of the surrounding reality, a twilight state of consciousness, and painful arousal, which can lead to misconduct.      

In the paranoid form of pathological intoxication, hallucinations and delusions occur in the person. His consciousness is disturbed, the surrounding reality is perceived distorted, feelings of fear and anxiety arise, which can give rise to the latter's desire to escape, defend himself, and attack enemies who appear to him in delirium.       In the case of paranoid and epileptoid intoxication, both of the above criteria of insanity are present.       The position fixed by art. 18 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan establishes that a person who has committed a crime under the influence of alcohol, toxic or narcotic intoxication is not exempt from criminal liability if the following conditions are met:: it must necessarily have the characteristics of the subject of the crime, i.e. be sane, physical, and have reached the age from which, according to art. 15 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan, criminal responsibility for the commission of this crime begins - intoxication must be physiological.

Commentary from 2007 to the Criminal Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan from the Honored Worker of Kazakhstan, Doctor of Law, Professor, Academician of the Kazakhstan National Academy of Natural Sciences BORCHASHVILI I.Sh.                  

Date of amendment of the act:  08/02/2007 Date of adoption of the act:  08/02/2007 Place of acceptance:  NO Authority that adopted the act: 180000000000 Region of operation:  100000000000 NPA registration number assigned by the regulatory body:  167 Status of the act:  new Sphere of legal relations:  028000000000 Report form:  COMM Legal force:  1900 Language of the Act:  rus

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