The Rada registered a draft law to clarify liability for bribery of officials

The document should eliminate the ambiguous interpretation of Article 369 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine

The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine has registered draft law No. 15221 “On Amendments to Parts Three and Four of Article 369 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine”. The document concerns the clarification of the norms on criminal liability for providing an unlawful benefit to officials.

The draft law is designed to eliminate legal uncertainty

The author of the initiative notes that the current wording of Article 369 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine may create grounds for different interpretations of the norms in practice.

In particular, due to technical and legal imperfections, there may be a risk of unjustified extension of qualifying features not only to the fact of providing an unlawful benefit, but also to the offer or promise to provide it.

According to the author of the draft law, such an approach contradicts the principle of legal certainty and may lead to the expansion of the boundaries of criminal liability beyond the will of the legislator.

What exactly is proposed to be changed

The document provides for editorial clarification of parts three and four of Article 369 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine without changing the sanctions.

In particular, the draft law proposes to establish that:

providing an unlawful benefit to an official occupying a responsible position, or corresponding actions committed by a group of persons in a prior conspiracy, will be punishable by imprisonment for a term of 4 to 8 years with or without confiscation of property;
providing an unlawful benefit to an official occupying a particularly responsible position, or actions committed by an organized group, will be punishable by imprisonment for a term of 5 to 10 years with or without confiscation of property.
The sanctions remain unchanged

The authors of the draft law emphasize that the proposed changes are exclusively technical and legal in nature.

The document does not expand the boundaries of criminalization of acts and does not change the content of the criminal law prohibition, but only clarifies the wording for the uniform application of norms in judicial practice.