Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev has signed the law "On Amendments to the Criminal Code of Azerbaijan", according to which more adequate punishment for economic crimes would be implemented.
The key point is decriminalization of many economic crimes. Thus, a person whose previous actions are no longer considered criminal under the new law, will be free from criminal responsibility and walk free, even if the person is already serving the sentence. Those people who had already done time in prison will be considered as having no previous convictions.
In addition, if a punishment for the crime is mitigated after the law comes into force the prisoner can ask to review his case.
The penalties for economic crimes were also amended. After the new law comes into force the offender will have to pay fines proportionate to the damage he inflicted.
For some crimes, on the contrary more severe penalties were introduced.
One of the amendments has to do with pseudo-entrepreneurship, i.e. the establishment of the enterprise or other entity without the intention to do business, but for the purpose to receive loans and avoid taxes or for the sake of other benefits. Earlier, such pseudo-entrepreneurs could spend up to six months in prison. Now, if the offense is committed for the first time, they can avoid criminal charges if they compensate all the damage from their unlawful activity. The new law also affects punishment for not paying customs duties in ‘significant’ or ‘large’ amounts. The current fine is 1,000-2,000 manats, or up to one year of correctional works. According to the amendments, a person can receive a year of imprisonment due to this offense.
"A significant amount" refers to the amount, which is more than 3,000 manats, and ‘‘large amount" is the amount of more than 4,000 manats. After the law comes into effect "a significant amount" will be considered a sum of 20-100 AZN and "large" - more than 100,000 manats.
As a result of a nonpayment of customs duties less than 20,000 manats will be considered as an administrative offense rather than a criminal one.
The fine was amended in respect to penalties for non-payment of taxes or fees for state social insurance in large amounts. As for correctional works (up to two years), or imprisonment (up to three years), including a possibility of losing the right to hold certain positions or engage in certain activities after prison, the punishment stayed the same. But the fine in the amount of 1,000-2,000 manats was replaced by a fine 2-4 times exceeding the damage inflicted.
