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  5. Criminal liability of an accomplice in bribery without criminal liability of the perpetrator – pro et contra

“Pravova derzhava”. Issue 35 (2024), pages 577–587.

DOI: 10.33663/0869-2491-2024-35-577-587

Zahyney-Zabolotenko Zoya
Criminal liability of an accomplice in bribery without criminal liability of the perpetrator – pro et contra

Extended Abstract. The article highlights the question of whether it is possible to pass a guilty verdict against an accomplice in bribery in the event that the executor - an offi cial who allegedly received an illegal benefi t through the accomplice, was not brought to criminal liability. That is, in the case when there is no indictment of the court regarding the offi cial’s criminal liability under Art. 368 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. It has been established that aiding and abetting in the commission of a criminal off ense should be considered exclusively within the scope of complicity, and therefore aiding and abetting, like complicity in general, should be characterized by both objective and subjective signs, in particular, such an objective sign as joint activity accomplices The indicated sign follows from such a feature of complicity as conspiracy to commit the relevant criminal off ense, which is inherent even in the case of bribery with the use of an accomplice. Two levels of the commission of a criminal off ense are distinguished if an accomplice is involved in the performance of the objective party, namely the primary level of receiving an unlawful benefi t by an offi cial, and the secondary level — the actual assistance in bribery. The indicated levels form a single criminal off ense for accomplices — bribery, the commission of which is determined by the signs of complicity of an objective and subjective nature. The absence of a properly confi rmed fact of committing the primary level of bribery (the fact that the offi cial received an unlawful benefi t) indicates that there is no secondary level of committing bribery, namely aiding and abetting bribery. It was concluded that aiding and abetting bribery is a type of complicity in the commission of a criminal off ense, it should have objective and subjective signs of complicity. Accordingly, the conviction of a person for aiding and abetting an illegal benefi t by an offi cial without a properly established fact that he received such an illegal benefi t contradicts established approaches in the theory of criminal law and violates the principle of presumption of innocence.

Key words: complicity, aiding and abetting bribery, mediation, criminal responsibility, criminal off ense, corruption criminal off ense, bribery, mediation, conspiracy, presumption of innocence, qualifi cation.

References

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  10. Ibid. S. 120.
  11. Ibid. S. 121.
  12. Orlovskyi R. S. S. 199.
  13. Ibid.
  14. Ukhvala Apeliatsiinoi palaty Vyshchoho antykoruptsiinoho sudu vid 05.10.2023 u spravi № 991/1324/20.
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