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For the purchase of Chinese "toys" continue to be judged under article 138.1 of the Criminal Code


A farmer from the Kurgan region was going to spy on a cow with the help of a Chinese GPS tracker. FSB officers detained him near the post office with a package in his hands.

Prosecutor General's Office has completed the verification of criminal cases on the use of "spy gadgets", according to the legal portal Pravo.ru. The conclusions are disappointing - a lot of criminal cases are brought up against Russians under Article 138.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation for the purchase of innocent gadgets in Chinese online stores. The law "has costs," recognized the Prosecutor General's Office on the results of the audit.

For ordinary people, criminal cases are brought up “for show” to improve the statistics of law enforcement agencies, lawyers say: “Now, this article mainly attracts people who order“ toys ”through Chinese websites: pens, watches with a video camera, etc. The police officers simply make positive statistics on the disclosure of crimes in such situations, instead of dealing with the detection and prevention of real socially dangerous offenses, ”Sergey Tokarev, partner, head of criminal practice, lawyer of Thorne Law Office, said in a comment for Pravo.ru. , A former investigator.

Here is the number of people convicted for using “spy gadgets”, that is, under article 138 part 1, which in 2011 replaced article 138 part 3:


Interestingly, the replacement of article 138 part 3 (“Illegal production, sale or purchase of technical means for secretly receiving information) with article 138.1 (“ Illegal circulation of special technical means intended for secretly receiving information ”) in 2011 was initiated by Dmitry Medvedev in order to “further humanize criminal law”.

But statistics clearly shows that no “humanization” actually happened. The number of convicts under this article after 2011 continued to grow and reached a peak in 2015, and since then it has practically not decreased. A total of 1,227 people were convicted under both articles in 2012–2017. The article provides for “a fine of up to two hundred thousand rubles or in the amount of the salary or other income of a convicted person for a period of up to eighteen months, or restriction of freedom for up to four years, or forced labor for up to four years with the deprivation of the right to hold certain positions or engage certain activities for up to three years or without such, or imprisonment for up to four years with the deprivation of the right to occupy certain positions or engage in certain activities for up to three years or without it "( text ).


Recorder in the form of a flash drive is sold on Aliexpress, Focalprice and Dealextreme at prices from $ 6 to $ 9. For the purchase of this “spy device” in 2016, a criminal case was opened against a resident of the city of Bratsk

According to media reports, sometimes criminal cases lead to jealous wives who buy gadgets to spy on their husbands. For example, in 2015, the district court of the Voronezh region sentenced a local woman who tried to organize a secret photo and video surveillance of her spouse using a pen equipped with a hidden video camera and a voice recorder. She was fined 10 thousand rubles. Perhaps the aforementioned resident of Bratsk was buying a flash drive with a hidden voice recorder for the same purpose.

Another category is casual victims who did not buy gadgets for espionage, but fell under the article. For example, a month ago, Kommersant wrote that the Investigation Committee of Moscow was considering the possibility of starting a criminal case against Artyom Laptev, the founder of Vkus Lab Food Delivery Service, who bought GPS trackers in China for his couriers. Artyom wanted to develop an application that would allow the client to see the courier movement on the map on the smartphone in order to calculate the time of food delivery. The tracker certified in Russia costs 7,000 rubles, and similar devices from China cost 500 rubles. a piece. But instead of the ordered goods on AliExpress, the entrepreneur received a subpoena from the Koptevo department of the Investigative Committee.

Among other victims of art. 138.1 - Muscovite Alexey Sokolov, who bought a key chain with a video camera for use as a DVR on a motorcycle helmet. He was disappointed in the quality of the picture - and decided to resell the gadget that immediately falls under the article "Illegal circulation of special technical equipment intended for covert information."

In 2017, fellow villagers from a farmer turned to Vladimir Putin and were brought to criminal responsibility for the GPS tracker on a cow . After that incident, the Prosecutor General’s Office of the Russian Federation began a test, the results of which are now published. Now we can hope for a real humanization of legislation in the coming years.

Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/413449/

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