FSB may be entitled to search citizens, vehicles in anti-terrorism fight
MOSCOW. Jan 15 (Interfax) - Amendments to the Law on the Federal Security Service allow for the personal search of citizens, their belongings, vehicles and cargo.
The bill, which is a part of the new "anti-terrorist package" submitted to the State Duma on Wednesday, adjusts current laws and gives additional powers to law enforcement officers.
Co-author of the legislative initiative, State Duma Security and Anti-Corruption Committee Chairperson Irina Yarovaya told Interfax on Tuesday about the drafting of a package of three bills.
Article 13 of the Law on the Federal Security Service will be adjusted to allow for "the examination of identification documents of citizens and officials, personal belongings of citizens and their luggage in the case of well-founded suspicions of a crime (an illegal action), vehicles owned by citizens and cargo carried by them in the case of their suspected use for illegal purposes."
A note on the draft law said that propaganda, excuse and support of terrorism should be regarded as aggravating circumstances of a crime.
"There will be no statute of limitations for persons who commit terrorist crimes and crimes against the peace and security," the note runs.
There will be a new formal element of a crime - organization of a terrorist crime or organization of the financing of terrorism - which will be punished with 15 to 20 years in prison.
Punishment will be stricter for persons trained for terrorist activity, organizers and members of terrorist groups, and organizers and members of illegal armed groups.
The bill says that terrorist crimes cannot be punished below the statutory minimum and a person convicted of terrorism cannot aspire for a milder punishment than that envisaged by the relevant article.
Accomplices to terrorist crimes will be punished by 8-20 years in prison. Organizers of such crimes and sponsors of terrorists will face imprisonment terms of 15-20 years or even life in prison.
The bill defines organization of a terrorist crime as "the drawing up of a plan or creation of conditions for the perpetration of a crime, the assignment of duties to the criminals and their provision with information and means, or supervision of a crime."