Astana. October 24. Kazakhstan Today – Today, in the Majilis at the presentation of the new edition of the Criminal Code, the Deputy of the Attorney General, Johann Merkel announced the introduction of the two-phase system of criminal offenses in the new document, Kazakhstan Today reports.

As the press service of the Majilis informs, the proposed new edition of the Criminal Code was presented to the parliamentarians by a first deputy of Attorney General of the RoK, Johann Merkel.

According to information provided by him, the project contains 467 articles of the Criminal Code: 98 – in general part and 369 – in special part (there are 422 articles in the current Criminal Code). Among the most significant innovations, the project includes the introduction of a two-tier system of criminal offenses, consisting of crime and criminal offenses which are at the “junction” of administrative offenses and crimes according to the degree of public danger.

The number of criminal offenses includes a number of administrative offenses against a person, rights of minors, public safety and public order, as well as a minor offense for which no penalty is applied in the form of deprivation of liberty.

According to the principle of zero tolerance to the disorder, in order to strengthen the prevention of serious crimes,  one excludes from the scope of the administrative torts and includes in criminal misconduct minor offenses against public order.

Project in total includes 171 criminal offenses, including 58 components of the Administrative Code, 9 new and 104 existing misdemeanors.

“The effectiveness of the institute of criminal misconduct is confirmed by the international practice. Specifically, the two-tier system of criminal offenses ( misdemeanors and crimes ) is  provided for by the criminal codes of Germany, Spain, Austria, the Netherlands, Norway, Czech Republic, Albania, Lithuania, Latvia, Turkey,” I. Merkel said.

As he says, for the criminal offenses one provides for a wide range of soft penalties. For example: community and correctional work, as well as the minimum time limitations and lack of a criminal record.

Source: Informational Agency Kazakhstan Today.