Criminal Law sets out the general principles of criminal liability. It establishes that individuals are criminally liable only if they act with intent or negligence, defines the territorial and extraterritorial scope of the law, and classifies offenses into criminal infractions and crimes of varying severity. It also sets the minimum age of criminal responsibility (generally 14 years) and provides rules concerning diminished responsibility, legal entities, and persons with mental disorders.
The Law describes the stages of criminal conduct (preparation, attempt, and completed offense) and forms of participation, including perpetrators, organizers, accomplices, and instigators. It outlines circumstances excluding criminal liability, such as necessary self-defense, extreme necessity, and lawful professional risk, as well as mitigating and aggravating factors. Principles governing sentencing are established, along with the system of penalties, which includes imprisonment, probation, community service, fines, confiscation of property, and, in certain cases, expulsion of foreign nationals.
The Special Part enumerates specific criminal offenses, covering areas such as crimes against the state, humanity, property, the environment, public safety, and individual rights, as well as corruption, narcotics, and weapons-related crimes. Each offense includes defined sanctions based on severity and circumstances. The Law also provides special provisions for minors, compulsory medical measures, and coercive measures applied to legal persons, and reflects alignment with European Union law and international obligations, with periodic amendments to maintain legal consistency.
This Criminal Code punishes the following criminal offences: (a) intentional production and sale of goods or provision of services to consumers that do not meet the quality requirements established in regulatory acts, normative and technical documents or contracts, as a result of which significant damage was caused; (b) marine pollution with hazardous or other harmful substances, materials or waste; (c) intentional violation of veterinary rules, if this has led to the spread of an epizootic or other serious consequences; (d) forest burning, destruction and damage of forests through negligence, arbitrary felling and damage of trees; (e) violation of rules for combating plant diseases, pests and weeds, unauthorized sowing or growing of plants, containing narcotic or psychotropic substances, over large areas; (f) violation of land tenure rules; (g) illegal hunting, destruction and damage of protected natural areas, destruction and damage of protected animals and plants, violation of rules for trade in specimens of endangered species of wild animals and plants, cruelty to animals and violation for rules for keeping pet animals; (h) unauthorized fisheries, catching and harvesting of aquatic animals and fishes or aquatic animals also with the use of prohibited fishing gear and prohibited fishing methods such as electric current, explosives, toxic substances or other generally dangerous means or methods, illegal production, purchase, storage and sale of devices for electric fishing gear; and (i) illegal activities involving the use of ozone-depleting substances, violation of waste management rules, unauthorized disposal of hazardous substances in water and groundwater, pollution and contamination of land, forests and water bodies with waste, air pollution, failure to take measures to eliminate environmental pollution and concealment of data on environmental pollution.