The Russian parliament will consider a bill on fines for false
terrorism reports. Telephone terrorism may be punished with up to 5
years of prison, RIA Novosti cites the lower chamber of the parliament
as saying.
Robert Shlegel is the author of the project. He proposed the fines
from 50,000 to 300,000 rubles or equal to two-years wages or other
income sources.
The court may sentence to 200-300 hours of obligatory work, 2-3 years
of community works, up to 3 years of freedom limitation, 6 months or a
year of arrest or 1-5 years of prison.
The current punishment for the crime is 200,000 rubles, up to 2 years
of community works, freedom limitation of up to 3 years, 3-6 months of
arrest or 3 years of prison.
The author of the bill says that there were 1292 false telephone calls
reporting about bombs. One hour of a bomb technician's work costs
15,000 rubles, one hour of police work on checking the report costs at
least 5,000 rubles.
Telephone terrorists cause 10 million rubles of expenses annually.
The document introduces amendments to article 207 of the Russian Criminal Code.
The number of false terrorist messages rose dramatically after the
terrorist attack at Moscow's Domodedovo airport on January 24.
Gorbushkin Dvor trading center was evacuated last Thursday, the police
had to visit the Preobrazhensky Market on Friday, evacuate Mega-Belaya
Dacha and Mega-Teply Stan, Obi hypermarket and Vegas trading center on
Saturday over false reports about bombs.
