Commentary to article 320. Insulting a representative of the government of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan

     1. Publicly insulting a representative of authority in the performance of his official duties or in connection with their performance —      

is punishable by a fine in the amount of one hundred to four hundred monthly calculation indices or in the amount of the convicted person's salary or other income for a period of one to four months, or community service for up to one hundred and eighty hours, or correctional labor for up to one year, or restriction of liberty for the same period, or arrest for up to three months.    

2. The same act committed with the use of mass media, —    

is punishable by a fine in the amount of three hundred to seven hundred monthly calculation indices or in the amount of the convicted person's salary or other income for a period of three to seven months, or correctional labor for up to two years, or restriction of liberty for up to two years, or arrest for up to six months, or imprisonment for up to one year old.

     Notes    

1. In this article and other articles of this Code, an official of a state body who is endowed with administrative powers in accordance with the procedure established by law in relation to persons who are not dependent on him is recognized as a representative of power.    

2. Public statements containing critical statements about the official activities of a government representative shall not entail criminal liability under this article.

     Article 3 of the Constitution of the Republic of Kazakhstan states that the only source of State power is the people, who delegate the exercise of their power to State bodies acting on behalf of the State within the limits of their delegated powers, represented by their direct executors, referred to as the "representative of power."    

320 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan is the normal managerial activity of government representatives – the management procedure. As an additional object, the honor and dignity of government representatives act.    

 320 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan, an official of a state body endowed with administrative powers in accordance with the procedure established by law in relation to persons who are not dependent on him is recognized as a victim in the law.    

 On the objective side, the criminal acts referred to in Article 320 are expressed in publicly insulting a government official performing his official duties or in connection with their performance.     

Insulting a representative of authority consists in humiliating treatment of him, which undermines his authority. 130 of the Criminal Code (see the commentary to it) also implies that an insult must contain a negative opinion about the victim, which is expressed in an indecent form. Reporting even truthful shameful facts from the life of a government official, but in an indecent form, in my opinion, will be sufficient grounds for recognizing a person's actions as a sign of a crime under Article 320 of the Criminal Code.     

 The main sign of an insult is the form of address itself, which in these cases degrades the honor and dignity of the person in question. It does not matter whether the honor and dignity of a government official were humiliated in writing or verbally.      A mandatory sign of a crime is the publicity of insulting a government official.    

 Insulting a judge and other participants in the trial should be considered under Article 342 of the Criminal Code (contempt of court).    

 A crime is considered to be over from the moment of publicly insulting a representative of authority in the performance of his official duties or in connection with their performance. In cases where the insult was committed in the absence of the victim, from the moment other persons reported the insults to him. Any consequences are beyond the scope of this crime.  

   On the subjective side, a crime is committed with direct intent, which should cover the very fact of insulting a representative of authority in the performance of his official duties or in connection with his official activities.      The subject of the crime is a sane individual who has reached the age of 16.    

 The term "in execution" is a sign not so much of the objective side as of the subjective side. It means that the fact of an insult is connected in time and space with the fact that a representative of the authorities performs his official duties. On the subjective side, it should be proved that the motive for the insult was precisely legitimate official activity. Insulting a government official based on personal hostility does not constitute a crime in question. The expression "in connection with the performance of duties" means that the motive for the insult is related to the past activities of a government official or to his future activities, out of spite against government officials in general.     

320 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan establishes criminal liability for the same acts committed using mass media. This should be understood as public insults of a government official on television, radio, in newspapers, and so on.      Paragraph 2 of the Note to this article states that public statements containing critical statements about the official activities of a government official do not entail criminal liability under this article.   

  A study of judicial practice shows that insults to government officials are often preceded by hooligan acts. As a rule, encroachment on the honor and dignity of government officials is a consequence of the latter's interference in the suppression of hooliganism. Such facts create difficulties in qualifying the actions performed.

An insult, which is one of the forms of opposition to government representatives, in these cases, in my opinion, should be qualified under paragraph "b" of Part 2 of Article 257 of the Criminal Code as a more serious crime – hooliganism. If there was a time gap between hooliganism and insult, then the real set of crimes is on the face: Articles 320 and 257 of the Criminal Code.   

  The crime provided for in Article 320 of the Criminal Code should be distinguished from Article 130 of the Criminal Code. These crimes are similar in many ways, and Articles 130 and 320 of the Criminal Code relate to each other as general and special norms. These crimes differ in their main object: if an insult (Article 130) encroaches on the honor and dignity of a person, then an insult to a representative of authority (320) affects the normal activities of government bodies, and an additional object is the honor and dignity of a person.   

  On the objective side, these crimes differ in that insulting a government official should be public, while insulting (Article 130 of the Criminal Code) does not have such a mandatory feature.

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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