The Law "On Amnesty in Connection with the Adoption of the New Constitution of the Republic of Kazakhstan" has become one of the most extensive acts of legislative humanization in recent years. According to preliminary estimates, the criminal amnesty will affect over 15 thousand convicts, while the administrative amnesty will allow more than 500 thousand citizens to be relieved from the execution of administrative fines and over one million penalties to be written off.

At a plenary session in the second reading, deputies of the Majilis of the Parliament adopted the Law "On Amnesty in Connection with the Adoption of the New Constitution of the Republic of Kazakhstan." The document provides for a comprehensive criminal and administrative amnesty and is one of the most large-scale acts of humanization of legal policy in recent years.

The initiative is being implemented within the framework of the course toward further humanization of the state's legal policy following the adoption of the new Constitution.

The concept and mechanisms for implementing the amnesty were reported during the session by Majilis deputy Abzal Khuspan. He noted that the initiative is a direct consequence of the political decision of the Head of State to conduct a comprehensive criminal and administrative amnesty in connection with the adoption of the country's new Constitution.

– On March 17 of this year, the Head of State announced the conduct of a comprehensive criminal and administrative amnesty on the occasion of the adoption of the new Constitution of the Republic of Kazakhstan. In the practice of many countries, amnesty laws are adopted for traditional landmark dates. This time, together with the Government, we have prepared a draft amnesty law. This is another demonstration of an act of humanism on the part of our state towards people who have made mistakes but have repented and through their behavior have proven that they have embarked on the path of correction. The upcoming amnesty differs from previous ones in that, for the first time in our country, alongside a criminal amnesty, an administrative amnesty is being conducted, – noted Abzal Khuspan.

The parliamentarian emphasized that the amnesty applies exclusively to persons who have committed crimes that do not pose a high public danger, as well as to citizens who have compensated for the damage caused or committed acts that did not have material consequences.

According to the provisions of the draft law, it is proposed to terminate criminal cases against persons being prosecuted for criminal offenses, minor crimes, and certain crimes of medium gravity committed before the law came into force. Furthermore, the draft law provides for the release from punishment of convicts for criminal offenses and minor crimes, as well as for crimes of medium gravity, if there is no damage or it has been fully compensated. For other categories of convicts, a mechanism for reducing the unserved part of the sentence is proposed. Specifically, for persons convicted of crimes of medium gravity, the sentence term is planned to be reduced by half. Similar mitigation measures are also envisaged for certain categories of those convicted of serious and especially serious crimes.

At the same time, Abzal Khuspan emphasized that the humanization of criminal policy should not affect persons who have committed the most dangerous crimes. For this reason, the draft law includes a separate list of acts to which the amnesty will not apply.

– According to Article 78 of the Criminal Code, the amnesty will not apply to persons who have committed especially dangerous crimes, in particular corruption, terrorist, and extremist crimes, crimes against the sexual integrity of minors, torture, crimes committed in the case of recidivism, acts with a high degree of public danger, as well as recently criminalized offenses and cases of trial in absentia. That is why the draft law separately defines a list of crimes to which the amnesty is proposed not to apply, – noted the deputy.

The draft law also provides for the creation of mechanisms for the subsequent social adaptation of citizens released from places of imprisonment. As the rapporteur noted, the document imposes additional obligations on local executive bodies to organize the resocialization of such persons, provide assistance in employment, restore social ties, and integrate into society.

Speaking about the administrative part of the amnesty, Abzal Khuspan emphasized that this measure will be unprecedented for the Kazakh legal system. The draft law provides for the release of certain categories of individuals and representatives of legal professions from administrative fines imposed by authorized bodies, except for cases related to a threat to the security of the state and citizens.

In turn, Majilis deputy Kairat Balabiev noted that the proposed amendments are aimed not only at the humanization of legislation but also at reducing the debt burden on the population through the write-off of administrative fines and the termination of enforcement proceedings.

– In the case of applying an administrative amnesty, the Code of Administrative Offenses provides for norms regulating the procedure for terminating the execution of decisions on the imposition of administrative penalties. The Law "On Enforcement Proceedings and the Status of Judicial Executors" provides for grounds for terminating enforcement proceedings in the case of applying an amnesty act. These norms allow citizens, without contacting a judicial executor, to lift restrictive measures on property and bank accounts, – outlined Kairat Balabiev.

During the discussion, deputies inquired about the estimated number of persons who will be able to take advantage of the sentence mitigation mechanisms.

Corresponding calculations were presented by the Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs – Chairman of the Committee of the Penal Enforcement System of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Abay Kaiyrbekov.

– According to preliminary calculations, more than 15 thousand convicts are subject to the amnesty, of which over five thousand are serving sentences in places of imprisonment, and more than ten thousand are under the supervision of probation services. At the same time, restrictions are envisaged for persons who have already taken advantage of the amnesty previously but subsequently violated its conditions and committed crimes again. Such cases will be considered separately, taking into account the requirements of the legislation and the degree of public danger of the acts committed, – he reported.

In turn, Vice-Minister of Internal Affairs Sanzhar Adilov stated that over 500 thousand persons will be subject to the administrative amnesty, and more than one million fines will be written off. Overall, according to him, the mechanism covers 58 types of administrative offenses falling within the competence of internal affairs bodies.

– Preliminary estimates show that the total amount of such fines exceeds 17 billion tenge. This will significantly reduce the financial burden on citizens and create additional conditions for restoring their economic activity, – noted Sanzhar Adilov.

At the same time, he emphasized that the amnesty will not apply to offenses related to illicit drug and weapons trafficking, malicious violations of traffic rules, as well as other acts posing a threat to the security of the state and citizens.

Additional information on the scale of the administrative amnesty was presented by the Chairman of the Committee on Legal Statistics and Special Accounts of the Prosecutor General's Office, Sabit Nurlybai.

According to him, the total amount of fines that could potentially be written off as a result of the adoption of the law exceeds 21 billion tenge.

– Overall, we are talking about fines totaling 21 billion 182 million tenge. For the State Revenue Committee, over four thousand offenses totaling 446 million tenge fall under the amnesty; for the Ministry of Justice – 561 offenses totaling 16 million tenge; for other state bodies – about three thousand offenses totaling over 500 million tenge, – reported Sabit Nurlybai.

The position of the financial bloc of the Government was presented by Vice-Minister of Finance Yerzhan Birzhanov. According to him, certain provisions of the administrative amnesty may affect about 2,370 business entities. At the same time, the draft law includes clear restrictions. Violations of public procurement legislation, as well as offenses related to the deliberate concealment of taxable objects, will not be subject to the amnesty.

By Linara SAKTAGANOVA
Astana