Question regarding the hooliganism of the Article 221.3 Criminal Code of the Azerbaijan Republic and its response

Question: When committing a hooliganism, the guilty person only demonstrates the use of weapons or weapons as a result of intimidation of the victim or the use of the weapons used by the victim as a weapon, or how such actions of a guilty person should be dealt with when the property is destroyed or damaged?

Answer: First of all, it should be noted that, according to the disposition of the Article 221.1 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Azerbaijan (hereinafter referred to as the CC), hooliganism, that is the deliberate actions roughly breaking a social order, expressing obvious disrespect for a society, accompanying with application of violence on citizens or threat of its application, as well as destruction or damage of another's property, shall entail the imposition of a criminal offense by that person. In Article 221.2 of the Criminal Code, the same acts, ie, a group of persons who committed hooliganism or offenses established in Article 221.1 of this Code, as well as for the resistance of the representative of the authorities who fulfill their duty of public order or prevent public order is designed. Article 221.3 of the Criminal Code of Azerbaijan Republic, as amended by the Law of the Republic of Azerbaijan "On Amendments to the Criminal Code of the Republic of Azerbaijan" dated October 20, 2017, which enter into force on December 1, 2017, is presented in the following new edition:

"The commission of an offense established by Article 221.1 or 221.2 of this Code with the use of weapons or objects used as a weapon is accompanied by a severe penalty on the victim or accompanied with the destruction or damage of another's property -

shall be punished by imprisonment for the term from two up to six years. "

The content of this article seems to indicate that a person must be brought to justice in accordance with Article 221.3 of the Criminal Code, namely the existence of the following three circumstances in order to recommend that the committed act be justified:

committing a crime of hooliganism (Article 221.1 of the Criminal Code) or hooliganism with traumatic symptoms (Article 221.2 of the Criminal Code);

the use of weapons or objects used as a weapon in the commission of such acts;

the use of the person's items in accordance with paragraph 2 or use of violence against the victim or the destruction or damage of another person's property.

Under Article 221.1 of the CC, the use of hooliganism is understood to mean that the victim is in contact with the hooligan, causing physical pain or injury to his or her health, or of causing minor injury to health. The infliction of lesser severity or severe injury to a wicked one from hooliganism, as well as the intentional killing of a victim, are beyond the scope of Article 221.1 of the Criminal Code, and in such cases, such an act together with hooliganism should be evaluated as causing a lesser severity or serious injury to the health of the person who has worn and deliberate murder of a victim of hooliganism, and, accordingly, should be qualified together with Articles 221.1 and 221.2, as well as Articles 127.2.3 or 126.2.4 or 120.2.2 of the Criminal Code of the Azerbaijan Republic.

Property destruction means the loss of property, irrespective of the form of ownership, as well as damage to the property, and the subsequent loss of property to the extent that it can be recovered subsequently.

According to Article 221.3 of the Criminal Code, the use of weapons or objects used as a weapon during the commission of hooliganism must be accompanied by the physical violence against the victim or damage or destruction of the property. This means that, in such cases, the use of weapons or weapons as a result of physical or psychological damage to the victim, or damage to various degrees, or deprivation of life, as well as damage to his property or should be destroyed so that the offense can be regarded as a crime envisaged by Article 221.3 of the Criminal Code and to be recommended by this article. Otherwise, ie failure to identify one of the above three circumstances does not give rise to the fact that the deed committed by Article 221.3 of the CC. The use of guns or weapons as a result of hooliganism is a threat to the victim of various forms of exploitation (showing firearms, firing firearms, etc.) to justify the use of psychic force, which is a violation of Article 221.3 does not include the signs of "forced application" in the article.

In such cases, when the person committing the hooligan actions with shows the weapon or objects as weapons, or threatens the victim using these objects as weapons or objects used as weapons, or using these objects as weapons against other persons that prevent the damage of the property, as well as for other reasons not dependent on the will of the person applying the said objects to the victim, and the property cannot be damaged or destroyed, such actions should not be qualified by Article 221.3 Criminal Code Azerbaijan Republic, and depending on the factual circumstances  of the case should be applying Article 221.1 and Article 221.2 of the Criminal Code.