1. Violation of sanitary and epidemiological rules, which through negligence resulted in mass disease or poisoning of people or created the threat of such consequences, -
shall be punishable by a fine in the amount of five hundred thousand to seven hundred thousand rubles, or in the amount of the wages or other income of the convicted person for a period of one year to eighteen months, or by deprivation of the right to hold certain positions or engage in certain activities for a period of one to three years, or by restriction freedom for a term of up to two years, or forced labor for a term of up to two years, or imprisonment for the same term.
2. Violation of sanitary and epidemiological rules, resulting in the death of a person through negligence, -
shall be punishable by a fine in the amount of one million rubles to two million rubles, or in the amount of the wages or other income of the convicted person for a period of one to three years, or by restriction of freedom for a term of two to four years, or by forced labor for a term of three to five years. years, or imprisonment for the same period.
3. Violation of sanitary and epidemiological rules, resulting in the death of two or more persons through negligence, -
shall be punished by forced labor for a term of four to five years or imprisonment for a term of five to seven years.
- Article 235.1. Illegal production of medicines and medical devices
- Article 237. Concealment of information about circumstances that pose a danger to the life or health of people
Commentary to Art. 236 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation
The object of the crime is public relations to protect the sanitary and epidemiological well-being of the population. According to the Federal Law of March 30, 1999 N 52-FZ “On the sanitary and epidemiological well-being of the population”, this is understood as a state of health of the population, the human environment, in which there is no harmful impact of environmental factors on a person and favorable conditions for his life are provided.
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NW RF. 1999. N 14. Art. 1650.
The objective side of the crime is a violation of sanitary and epidemiological rules, which resulted in mass disease or poisoning of people.
State sanitary and epidemiological rules and regulations are regulatory legal acts that establish sanitary and epidemiological requirements (including criteria for the safety and (or) harmlessness of environmental factors for humans, hygienic and other standards), non-compliance with which creates a threat to human life or health, as well as the threat of the emergence and spread of diseases.
Action can be expressed both in actions and inaction. For example, allowing an employee with an infectious disease to work at a catering enterprise, manufacturing food products in violation of sanitary standards, etc.
A mass disease of people is a disease of a significant number of the population in a certain territory when the average incidence rate of a given disease is several times higher. The mass scale criteria are determined by epidemiologists. Mostly mass diseases of people are: acute intestinal diseases, diphtheria, measles, pediculosis, scabies, tularemia, salmonellosis, anthrax, cholera, tuberculosis, brucellosis.
Diseases can be infectious or non-infectious. Human infectious diseases are diseases, the occurrence and spread of which is caused by the impact on humans of biological environmental factors (causative agents of infectious diseases) and the possibility of transmission of the disease from a sick person or animal to a healthy person.
Infectious diseases that are dangerous to others are human infectious diseases characterized by severe course, high mortality and disability rates, and rapid spread among the population (epidemic).
Mass non-infectious diseases (poisonings) are human diseases, the occurrence of which is caused by the influence of physical and (or) chemical and (or) social environmental factors.
Poisoning is the introduction of a foreign substance into the body in a toxic dose. It can be caused by consuming a substance of animal, plant or synthetic origin. According to the meaning of the article, the poisoning must be massive. Diseases can be bacterial, viral, intestinal, etc., food poisoning caused by drinking poor-quality water or using items containing carcinogenic substances.
The crime is considered completed after mass disease or poisoning of people occurs. The corpus delicti is material.
A more dangerous type of this crime is a violation of the relevant rules, resulting in the death of a person (Part 2 of Article 236 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). Thus, a qualified type of crime is available provided that at least one person affected by the disease or poisoned died.
The subjective side of the crime is characterized by careless guilt in the form of frivolity or negligence.
A special subject of a crime is a person obliged to comply with the rules established to combat the spread of mass diseases or poisoning of people (workers of public catering establishments, sanitary and epidemiological stations, medical institutions, etc.).
Judicial practice under Article 236 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation
Determination of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation dated 07/08/2021 N 1373-O
The criminal law establishes a system of special norms aimed at ensuring safety in certain areas of life, characterized by increased requirements for the behavior of subjects (in particular, articles 143, 215, 216, 217, 218, 219, 236, 247, 263, 264, 268, 350 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). In such relations, their participants act as special subjects called upon to comply with a set of rules that ensure both individual safety and the general security of life and health of a wide (indefinite) circle of people. Failure to comply (violate) the requirements of special norms in itself creates a danger of causing harm to the life and health of people and other objects of criminal legal protection.
“Review of selected issues of judicial practice related to the application of legislation and measures to counter the spread of the new coronavirus infection (COVID-19) No. 3 on the territory of the Russian Federation”
Question 15: Can citizens infected with COVID-19 or who have had contact with such persons be held criminally liable under Article 236 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (hereinafter referred to as the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation) for violating sanitary and epidemiological rules? Answer: Law No. 52-FZ imposes obligations on citizens to comply with the requirements of sanitary legislation, as well as decrees and instructions of officials exercising federal state sanitary and epidemiological supervision (Article 10). Such mandatory acts include, in particular, decisions of chief state sanitary doctors and their deputies on hospitalization for examination or on isolation of patients with infectious diseases that pose a danger to others, and persons suspected of such diseases, on hospitalization or on isolation of citizens who were in contact with patients with infectious diseases that pose a danger to others.
“Review of selected issues of judicial practice related to the application of legislation and measures to counter the spread of the new coronavirus infection (COVID-19) No. 2 on the territory of the Russian Federation”
Question 14: In relation to Part 1 of Article 236 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, what should be understood by “mass illness or poisoning of people” or “creating a threat of such consequences”? Answer: Taking into account the fact that this sign of a crime is evaluative, when deciding whether to classify a disease or poisoning as mass, one should take into account not only the number of sick or poisoned people, but also the severity of the disease (poisoning). To determine the extent of the disease or poisoning, the court has the right to involve relevant specialists, for example, representatives of federal executive authorities authorized to carry out state sanitary and epidemiological supervision or supervision in the field of protecting consumer rights and human well-being.
COVID-19. Legal protection of business
04/06/2020 Practice of application of Art. 236 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (“Violation of sanitary and epidemiological rules”) during the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic
Articles 41 and 42 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation establish the rights of citizens to health protection and a favorable environment. At the same time, Russian legislation establishes both administrative and criminal liability for violations in the field of protecting the health of citizens. The criminal law provides, among other things, the following rule establishing liability for encroachment on legal relations arising in the field of protecting the health of citizens.
Article 236 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. Violation of sanitary and epidemiological rules.
The objective side of this crime consists of actions or inactions that violate sanitary and epidemiological rules, as a result of which, due to negligence, mass illnesses, poisonings can occur, either creating a threat of such consequences, or leading to the death of people. The disposition of this article is blanket, that is, in order to bring the guilty person to criminal liability, it is necessary to establish what specific sanitary and epidemiological rules were violated and that the person was obliged to comply with such rules. At the same time, it is not enough to state only the fact of violation of such rules. It is necessary that this violation entail the onset of socially dangerous consequences - mass disease or poisoning of people, or create a threat of such consequences (Part 1 of Article 236 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation), the death of a person (Part 2 of Article 236 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation), the death of two and more persons (Part 3 of Article 236). The subject of criminal liability may be a person who has the obligation to comply with or ensure compliance with sanitary and epidemiological rules. For example, this could be either a sick person who has not complied with the requirements of the relevant rules, or a person who, in accordance with the established procedure, is charged with ensuring and monitoring compliance with certain rules.
04/02/2020 The Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation No. 417 approved the “Rules of conduct that are mandatory for citizens and organizations during a high alert or emergency situation.”
The regulatory legal act was adopted in accordance with the Federal Law “On the protection of the population and territories from natural and man-made emergencies” (No. 68-FZ of December 21, 1994). Another federal law regulating legal relations arising in the field of health care is the Federal Law “On the sanitary and epidemiological welfare of the population” dated March 30, 1999, No. 52-FZ. Article 10 of the Federal Law “On the Sanitary and Epidemiological Welfare of the Population” obliges citizens
to comply with the requirements of sanitary legislation, as well as resolutions and instructions of officials carrying out federal state sanitary and epidemiological supervision; take care of the health, hygiene education and education of their children; not to carry out actions that entail a violation of the rights of other citizens to health protection and a favorable living environment. In turn, Articles 6 and 31 of the above-mentioned Law give the heads of constituent entities of the Russian Federation the authority to introduce restrictive measures (quarantine) based on proposals and orders of the chief state sanitary doctors. 03/13/2020 and 03/18/2020 The Chief State Sanitary Doctor adopted Resolutions No. 6 and regarding the need to take certain restrictive measures in connection with the threat of the spread of COVID-2019. Based on these instructions, on the territory of the Kemerovo region - Kuzbass, on March 14, 2020, by order of the Governor (as amended on April 3, 2020), restrictive measures (quarantine) were introduced, which established a number of restrictions in relation to both legal entities and individuals.
Thus, failure to comply with restrictions and prohibitions
, established by the above regulations, may be the basis for bringing to criminal liability citizens - both individuals and as heads of organizations of all forms of ownership, in respect of whose activities restrictions or prohibitions have been introduced.
Please note that the list of restrictions or prohibitions that are recommended
to be observed is not
an obligation
. Consequently, failure to comply with certain recommendations cannot be qualified as a violation of the rules.
Currently, there are already cases of initiation of criminal cases under Art. 236 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation in relation to individuals in connection with their violation of the self-isolation regime.
So, for example, on March 30, 2020, the Regional Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia for the city of Bryansk opened a criminal case under Part 1 of Art. 236 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation in relation to two local residents who arrived from the territory of the Kingdom of Spain in mid-March 2021 and, despite the order given to them by the Chief State Sanitary Doctor for the Bryansk Region, ignored the requirement to comply with the 14-day self-isolation regime. As a result of the contact of the defendants in the criminal case with other citizens, they became infected with coronavirus infection. In the Chuvash Republic, a criminal case has also been initiated against a local resident who, having passed a test for signs of COVID-19 disease, was in quarantine (self-isolation), however, without waiting for the results (subsequently, the woman’s earlier test for the presence of infection showed a positive result ), left Moscow and Cheboksary on a regular bus, exposing the 26 other passengers traveling with her to the threat of infection.
Thus, as emerging practice shows, an individual may well become involved in a criminal case for violating the quarantine (self-isolation) regime.
However, as before, in this category of cases in each case, of course, the presence of a cause-and-effect relationship between violation of sanitary and epidemiological rules and mass diseases and poisonings of people (that is, a disease of a group of people concentrated in a certain territory, requiring medical intervention), or creating a threat of such disease or infection.
Under certain circumstances, the actions of the perpetrators may be collectively qualified under other articles of the Criminal Law of the Russian Federation. So, for example, if the act provided for in Article 236 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation was committed by an official, liability may also arise under the corresponding articles on official crimes - 285, 286, 293 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.
The Regionservice Bar Association will continue to promptly monitor changes in the current legal regulation of criminal and legal relations arising from them during the fight against the COVID-2021 pandemic and publish analytical reviews.
To receive emergency advice on any issues related to the regulation of legal relations during the period of restrictive measures aimed at combating the COVID - 2019 pandemic, you can write to our hot mail
[email protected] with a note in the subject line "COVID - 2019" .
We will try to accept your request and respond to it within 24 hours. *This material has been prepared for informational and/or educational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice or opinion. The Regionservice Bar Association, its management, lawyers and employees cannot guarantee the applicability of such information for your purposes and are not responsible for your decisions and related possible direct or indirect losses and/or damages arising from the use of these materials. information or any part thereof.
