03 April 2008, 15:06
State Duma rejects the bill on punishments for kidnapping brides brought in by Ingushetian parliament
On April 2, the Russian State Duma refused again to amend the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, as the National Assembly of Ingushetia offered back in 2005, and introduce punishments in the form of imprisonment for kidnappers of brides.
We remind you that the authors of the bill suggest to sentence to up to three years in custody for stealing brides. The Ingush MPs remind that the 1960 RSFSR Criminal code had Article 233 assuming responsibility for this sort of offences. Now, the criminal legislation has no such norm, and such crimes are covered by Article 126 of the RF Criminal Code - "Kidnapping of a human".
"However, in most cases the offenders manage to escape criminal liability on the basis of the note to this Article running that the person who has voluntarily released the kidnapped person shall be exempt from criminal liability, if his or her actions have no other criminal elements," the RIA "Novosti" is quoting the bill.
The authors of the bill note that the law enforcement bodies in the Republics of Northern Caucasus, where the tradition to kidnap women for marriage is still alive, cannot make the kidnappers answerable. In this case, the suffered party, finding no defence by the state, often tries to take vengeance on the rendered insult - this is the way a woman's kidnapping is treated by local customs. It creates grounds for extrajudicial conflict settlement, the Ingush deputies assert.
Meanwhile, as the "Caucasian Knot" has already informed, in 2005 Azerbaijan adopted an amendment, according to which the centuries-old custom of kidnapping bribes will be penalized by the law. Even if a bride was stolen upon her consent, but her parents would apply to police, the kidnapper can face justice and be sentenced to up to 10 years of imprisonment.
