Criminal Code defines the legal basis for criminal liability, establishing that only acts containing all elements of a criminal offense as specified in the Code can give rise to liability. It applies primarily to acts committed within the national territory but may extend to offenses committed abroad by its citizens or affecting national interests. It introduces classifications of offenses (criminal misdemeanors and crimes of varying gravity) and sets out the conditions for liability, including age and mental capacity.
The Code outlines the objectives of criminal legislation, which include protecting individual rights and freedoms, property, public order, the environment, constitutional order, as well as preventing crime. It defines key legal concepts and establishes a system of punishments, such as fines, corrective labor, community service, restriction of liberty, and imprisonment, along with additional penalties like deprivation of rights or titles.
This Criminal Code punishes the following criminal offences: (a) violation of labour legislation, including child labour, employment of workers under the age of eighteen; (b) violation of veterinary regulations, including those resulting in the spread of epizootics or other serious consequences, and theft of cattle; (c) illegal use of another's trademark, service mark, trade name, geographical indication or name of origin; (d) illegal fisheries and catch of aquatic animals, collecting and harvesting of aquatic plants; (f) violation of wildlife protection rules, illegal hunting, including the use of prohibited hunting gear and hunting methods, handling of rare and endangered species of plants or animals, as well as prohibited species of plants or animals, violation of the protection regime of protected areas, cruelty to animals; (g) illegal felling, destruction or damage of trees and shrubs, both included and not included in the forest fund; (h) sowing or growing plants prohibited for cultivation or cultivating varieties of hemp, poppy or other plants containing narcotic substance, mass destruction of plant species, violation of rules on control of plant disease, pests and weeds; (i) pollution, contamination or depletion of waters, surface or groundwater, glaciers, drinking water sources or other changes in their natural properties; (j) air pollution, environmental pollution, marine pollution, illegal handling of hazardous substances, including hazardous and radioactive waste, pests, pathogens, toxins, ecocide; and (k) soil pollution, including pollution by hazardous chemicals, pesticides and fertilizers, violation of property rights to land, illegal seizure of someone else's land.