The ruling majority is starting to show its true face. For the first time, it is criminalizing as crimes activities that it claims constitute circumvention of sanctions against Russia. This was stated by MP Petar Petrov from the PG of "Vazrazhdane" on the occasion of the bill on amendments to the Criminal Code adopted on the first vote, FOCUS reported.
"Notice, without even indicating that these activities, some of which are legal, of course, commercial activity, transportation of goods, trade, purchase and sale and so on and so forth, without indicating that they should be indicated as violating the restrictive measures of the European Union“, Petrov pointed out.
According to him, the adopted bill creates the possibility of criminal prosecution for a wide range of commercial activities that could be related to the Russian Federation.
"For the first time in Bulgarian criminal law, an attempt is being made to create criminal liability for legal entities. These are banks, financial institutions, companies that distribute dividends, insurance companies that could pay compensation to sanctioned persons, the Central Depository could be sent to prison for approving the transfer of shares to sanctioned persons, or even a patent office that could allow the registration of the sale of a trademark,", he said. According to him, this contradicts the principles of the Criminal Code, since criminal liability is personal and cannot be borne by legal entities.
"It is not stated that criminal liability should be borne by a specific individual. And I cannot tell you who this specific individual is. Will it be a director, manager, member of the board of directors, procurator, bank transfer officer and so on and so forth", the party indicated.
From "Vazrazhdane“ They also expressed criticism of other texts in the bill. According to them, it criminalizes assisting in the crossing or allowing persons who have been sanctioned to cross the border.
"Unfortunately, we already have such provisions in the Criminal Code, Articles 279 to 281, and competition between criminal groups is occurring", Petrov said.
He also pointed out that the bill had been criticized by the Ministry of Finance, the National Statistical Institute, the Supreme Court of Cassation and the Supreme Cassation Prosecutor's Office, as well as during the meeting of the parliamentary Legal Committee - Despite this, the bill was adopted on the first vote, and the creation of a working group to discuss the texts was also supported.
The party announced that they had voted against the bill and would vote against it on the second reading.
"We voted against, will vote against this bill on the second vote and will not participate in any possible working groups or so on“, Petrov concluded.