New concept of criminal acts of terrorism in the Criminal Code of the Republic of Serbia
Keywords:
terrorism; Criminal Code; criminal offence; preparation; instigation; training and recruitmentAbstract
The Law on Amendments to the Criminal Code of the Republic of Serbia dated December 2012 is characterized by the expansion of the scope of criminal law repression, particularly regarding criminal acts of terrorism. Observing the contemporary trends in comparative criminal law, we recognize a stage of hypertrophy of incriminations in the field of fight against terrorism. On the one hand there is an increased number of criminal acts of terrorism, and on the other hand, there are serious penalties in accordance with the recommendations of the referent international sources. It is obvious that the increased repression represents a consequence of escalation of terrorist acts all around the world. The above said becomes most obvious regarding the criminal acts incriminated in Articles 391a and 391b of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Serbia. These are threatening crimes which actually represent a criminalization in the early stage. The starting basis of new factual conditions are the behaviors typical for preparations which the legislator raises to the same level as commitment, or the activities which represent the instigation which are prescribed as an individual criminal offence. The prevailingly preventive effect of the said incriminations is notable which – if we observe the relationship between prevention and repression as the forms of social response to crime – occurs at the cross-section of the two sets, i.e. prevention and repression. Such a connection of preventive elements has so far been foreign to both substantive criminal law and criminal procedure law of Serbia, taking into account that there will be possible to apply special evidencing activities related to new criminal offences, that public attorney office with special jurisdiction will act upon them, or the special division of a competent court, etc. Due to these reasons one part of criminal legal theory approaches critically the said legislative reform, both in our and other countries where the new criminal acts of terrorism have been introduced. Finally, the author concludes that new incriminations despite certain criticisms that can be given represent further improvement of domestic criminal legislation.
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