Problems of Punishment for Unauthorized Dissemination of Military Significant Information (Art. 114-2 of the Criminal Code)

Abstract

The article is devoted to clarifying (based on the study of current judicial practice) the problems of punishability of unauthorized dissemination of military-significant information and formulating on this basis proposals aimed at improving the Criminal Code of Ukraine and the practice of its application.
In particular, the problems associated with the imposition of a “real” punishment on persons convicted under Art. 114-2 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, as well as the release of the latter from serving their sentence with probation, are consistently considered.
The imperfection of the sanctions of the relevant criminal law norms is confirmed. It is proposed in the updated Art. 114-2 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine to indicate alternative punishments to imprisonment for a certain period in the form of: 1) a fine and corrective labor (for “ordinary” citizens); 2) and service restriction for military personnel.
At the same time, it is substantiated that the problems of punishability of unauthorized dissemination of military-significant information are associated not only with the imperfection of the relevant sanctions (errors in penalization), but also with systematic cases of formally legal, but essentially incorrect application of criminal law by courts. In particular, the exemption from serving a sentence and the use of “preferential” mechanisms provided for in Article 69 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine for persons belonging to the category of “traitors” and “unproven traitors”, and most often also “waiters”, are criticized. The practice of assigning “traitors” the least severe punishments provided for in Article 114-2 of the Criminal Code is also negatively assessed and widespread.
It is determined that a promising direction for further scientific research in the relevant field is the establishment of specific amounts of fines and terms of imprisonment, which should appear in the sanctions of the updated norm on unauthorized dissemination of military-significant information.