Fines for slander, insult and invasion of privacy to be increased in Azerbaijan
Share
Share
The Milli Majlis (Parliament) of Azerbaijan is going to increase the amount of fines for slander, insult and invasion of privacy. Under the draft amendments, the fines will be increased by around 3-10 times.
The proposed draft amendments to the Criminal Code of Azerbaijan have already been approved by the Parliament’s Legal Committee. It will be put to vote at the Parliament’s plenary session on 25 April.
According to the draft amendments, a minimal fine under Article 147 (slander, i.e. distribution of obviously false information discrediting honor and dignity of any person or undermining his/her reputation in a public statement, in publiclyshown products, in mass media or at mass circulation, on the Internet) will be increased 10-fold. It is proposed to replace the wording from ‘fines ranging from AZN 100 to AZN 500’ (from EUR 55,50 to EUR 83,30, respectively) to ‘fines ranging from AZN 1,000 to AZN 1,500 (from EUR 555 to EUR 833, respectively).
The draft law, however, doesn’t specify what ‘mass circulation’ implies.
As far as the sanctions in Article 148 are concerned, it has proposed to replace the wording from ‘fines ranging from AZN 300 to AZN 1,000 (from EUR 167 to EUR 555) with the ‘fines ranging from AZN 1,000 to AZN 1,500 (from EUR 555 to EUR 833).
In addition, the penalty for the invasion of privacy will also be toughened.
In this regard, it is suggested amending Article 156 (violation of the inviolability of private life) of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Azerbaijan.
Under the amendments, it also proposed to replace a fine foreseen in the Article sanction, from ‘ranging from AZN 100 to AZN 500’, to ‘ranging from AZN 1,000 to AZN 2,000 (from EUR 555 up to EUR 1,111, respectively).