Criminal liability established for extortion on Internet 

At the meeting of the Legislative Chamber, the draft law “On amendments and additions to the Criminal and Criminal Procedural Codes and the Administrative Responsibility Code” was in the center of discussions.

The proposed draft law establishes criminal responsibility for engaging in extortion, illegal crypto-assets circulation and mining, as well as administrative responsibility for changing the international unique identification code of a mobile device without the permission of the legal manufacturer, developing, conducting or using special programs for this purpose.

According to the initiators of the law, individuals involved in the circulation and mining of illegal crypto-assets will be exempted from criminal responsibility if they voluntarily report about the crime being prepared or committed and actively help to solve it.

Adoption of the draft law will serve to expose crimes committed with the help of information technologies in the future, fully direct all forces and means to fight against them and investigate them, clearly define the scope of liability for violation of legislation in the field of crypto-assets circulation and illegal mining.

MPs considered the bill’s necessity and accepted it in the first reading.