Commentary to article 343. Defamation of a judge, prosecutor, investigator, person conducting an inquiry, bailiff, bailiff of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan

     1. Defamation of a judge in connection with the consideration of cases or materials in court —    

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

  2. The same act committed against a prosecutor, investigator, person conducting an inquiry, bailiff, bailiff in connection with the conduct of a preliminary investigation or the execution of a sentence, court decision or other judicial act, —   

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

   3. The acts provided for in the first or second parts of this Article, connected with the accusation of a person of committing a grave or especially grave crime, —    

are punishable by imprisonment for a term of up to four years.

     The public danger of defamation against a judge, prosecutor, investigator, inquirer, bailiff or bailiff is to undermine the authority of these officials, as a result of which the constitutional foundations of justice are undermined.   

  The direct object of the crime, the responsibility for which is provided for in Article 343 of the Criminal Code, is the normal activities of judicial authorities, prosecutor's offices, investigations and inquiries, as well as the honor and dignity of the persons specified in parts one and two of the articles of the Criminal Code under consideration. Thus, this crime should be classified as a two-object crime.     

According to its objective characteristics, defamation consists in the dissemination of deliberately false information discrediting the honor and dignity of the above-mentioned persons or undermining their business reputation. Business reputation is a stable positive assessment of a person's business (industrial, professional) qualities. Defamatory information is information that detracts from the honor and dignity of the victim in public opinion and the opinion of individual citizens in terms of compliance with laws and moral principles of society. This information should be about the facts concerning the victim. Their dissemination should be related to the consideration of cases or materials in court or to the conduct of a preliminary investigation or to the execution of a verdict, court decision or other judicial act. Defamation of these persons that is not related to the consideration of a criminal, civil, or administrative offense case in court, with the conduct of a preliminary investigation, or with the execution of a sentence, court decision, or other judicial act, may entail liability under Article 129 of the Criminal Code (Libel). For example, slander committed out of careerist motives, out of jealousy, on the basis of personal hostility.  

   False information can be disseminated in any form: orally, in writing, by publishing it, on radio, television, using audio, video recordings, communications, computer equipment, etc. They should relate to specific facts, specific individuals. General arguments that give a negative characterization of the persons referred to in Article 343 of the Criminal Code (parts 1 and 2), even if they are deliberately false, do not constitute the crime in question. Defamatory information is information that contains information about illegal, immoral acts of the victim. They must not correspond to reality, otherwise, in accordance with paragraph 11 of the Normative Resolution of the Supreme Court of the Republic of Kazakhstan dated December 18, 1992 "On the application in judicial practice of legislation on the protection of the honor and dignity of citizens and organizations", they cannot be considered defamatory. 

Reputation damage is a change in the opinion of others about the business (industrial, professional) merits of the victim by providing false information about his behavior.  

   The type of crime in question contains a formal composition and is considered completed from the moment false information is reported to at least one outsider. Communicating such information to the person it concerns does not constitute a crime in question.  

   The victims under the first part of Article 343 of the Criminal Code may be judges and jurors, and under the second part – the prosecutor, investigator, person conducting the inquiry, bailiff, bailiff.   

  The subjective side of this crime is characterized by direct intent. The perpetrator is aware that he is spreading deliberately false information that detracts from the honor and dignity of the victim. Conscientious misconception about the truthfulness of the disseminated information entails recognition of the absence of corpus delicti in question.    

 The subject of this crime may be a sane person who has reached the age of 16.  

   Part three of the article under consideration of the Criminal Code provides for liability for defamation, combined with an accusation of committing a grave or especially grave crime. The crimes specified in part 4 are considered grave, and especially grave – in part 5 of Article 10 of the Criminal Code.   

  The crime under consideration is similar to a deliberately false denunciation (Article 351 of the Criminal Code), which is committed in order to bring an innocent person to criminal responsibility. In case of a deliberately false denunciation, information about an alleged crime committed by someone is sent to law enforcement agencies. When committing a crime, the responsibility for which is provided for in Article 343 of the Criminal Code, the perpetrator does not pursue this goal, being indifferent to whether criminal prosecution will be initiated against the person he slandered. The main goal of the slanderer is to humiliate the honor and dignity and business reputation of the victim. When committing the crime in question, slanderous fabrications are directed not to law enforcement agencies, but to other institutions and organizations (for example, to the mass media), and are also distributed among the population.

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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