Lawyers say that it will be difficult to punish the authors of the mailing on Yakunin’s “dismissal”

The majority of the lawyers questioned by RAPSI are convinced that it will be difficult to bring to liability the culprits, who disseminated in the media the false information on dismissal of Vladimir Yakunin, head of the Russian Railways. However, according to one of the experts, anything is possible, when a high public official is involved is such stories.

All Russian information agencies and other large mass media, including the main TV channels, divulged the information of the alleged dismissal of Yakunin, which was sent by unknown persons late Wednesday on behalf of the Government press service. The IT service of RIA Novosti discovered that a notice, drawn up in a similar fashion to a governmental press release and containing elements common to such documents, was received from an IP address different than the address of the Government.

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Alexander Bolomatov, Associated Partner of the Law Firm "YUST", explains that that publication is special in the way that “it is not defamatory, as it does not damage the honor, dignity or business reputation of a person, it brought no profit to the person who divulged it, is was done on behalf of the Government of the Russian Federation”.

“A conclusion may be drawn that civil law persecution of the person responsible appears unpromising, criminal persecution also cannot be clearly defined, since only the attempt to make one’s actions appear as the actions of a state authority without any personal gain is material in this case”, - says A.Bolomatov.

He is of the opinion that the mailing may be seen as hooliganism, if any motive is ascertained and the fact of disorderly conduct is proven. Also, criminal liability may arise, if the culprit is a public official – in this case, he may be incriminated under the Article “Appropriation of authority of a public official” (Article 288 of the CCRF).

Advocate Victor Gerbutov of the Noerr law firm agrees that liability for such actions is not evident, but he still mentions several more articles, under which the culprits may be attempted to be brought to criminal or administrative liability. The expert supposes: “Hypothetically, the law enforcement bodies may attempt to qualify such actions under Article 19.23 of the AOCRF (forgery and use of a letterhead, seal, stamp), part 3 of Article 327 of the Penal Code of Russia (use of knowingly false document), and, depending on the circumstances of the case, under Articles 272-274 of the Penal Code of Russia (computer information-related crimes)”.

In the case of administrative liability under Article 19.23 of the AOCRF, the maximum fine is of 40 thousand roubles (only for legal entities). In the case of criminal liability under part 3 of Article 327 of the Penal Code of Russia, arrest of up to 6 months is possible, and the maximum sanction for computer information-related crimes may reach 7 years of imprisonment.

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