Article 26. The notion of complicity
Criminal complicity is the willful co-participation
of several criminal offenders in an intended
criminal offense.
Article 27. Types of accomplices
1. Organizer, abettor and accessory, together
with the principal offender, are deemed to
be accomplices in a criminal offense.
2. The principal (or co-principal) is the
person who, in association with other criminal
offenders, has committed a criminal offense
under this Code, directly or through other
persons, who cannot be criminally liable,
in accordance with the law, for what they
have committed.
3. The organizer is a person who has organized
a criminal offense (or criminal offenses)
or supervised its (their) preparation or commission.
The organizer is also a person who has created
an organized group or criminal organization,
or supervised it, or financed it, or organized
the covering up of the criminal activity of
an organized group or criminal organization.
4. The abettor is a person who has induced
any other accomplice to a criminal offense,
by way of persuasion, subornation, threat,
coercion or otherwise.
5. The accessory is a person who has facilitated
the commission of a criminal offense by other
accomplices, by way of advice, or instructions,
or by supplying the means or tools, or removing
obstacles, and also a person who promised
in advance to conceal a criminal offender,
tools or means, traces of crime or criminally
obtained things, to buy or sell such things,
or otherwise facilitate the covering up of
a criminal offense.
6. The concealment of a criminal offender,
tools or means of a criminal offense, traces
of crime or criminally obtained things, or
buying or selling such things shall not constitute
complicity where they have not been promised
in advance. Persons who have committed such
acts shall be criminally liable only in cases
prescribed by Articles 198 and 396 of this
Code.
7. A promised failure to report a crime which
is definitely known to be in preparation or
in progress, prior to the consummation of
such, shall not constitute complicity. Any
such person shall be criminally liable only
if the act so committed comprises the elements
of any other criminal offense.
Article 28. Criminal offense committed by
a group of persons, or a group of persons
upon prior conspiracy, or an organized group,
or a criminal organization
1. A criminal offense shall be held to have
been committed by a group of persons where
several (two or more) principal offenders
participated in that criminal offense, acting
without prior conspiracy.
2. A criminal offense shall be held to have
been committed by a group of persons upon
prior conspiracy where it was jointly committed
by several (two or more) persons who have
conspired in advance, that is prior to the
commencement of the offense, to commit it
together.
3. A criminal offense shall be held to have
been committed by an organized group where
several persons (three or more) participated
in its preparation or commission, who have
previously established a stable association
for the purpose of committing of this and
other offense (or offenses), and have been
consolidated by a common plan with assigned
roles designed to achieve this plan known
to all members of the group.
4. A criminal offense shall be held to have
been committed by a criminal organization
where it was committed by a stable hierarchical
association of several persons (three and
more), members or structural units of which
have organized themselves, upon prior conspiracy,
to jointly act for the purpose of directly
committing of grave or special grave criminal
offenses by the members of this organization,
or supervising or coordinating criminal activity
of other persons, or supporting the activity
of this criminal organization and other criminal
groups.
Article 29. Criminal liability of accomplices
1. The principal (or co-principals) shall
be criminally liable under that article of
the Special Part of this Code which creates
the offense he has committed.
2. The organized, abettor and accessory shall
be criminally liable under the respective
paragraph of Article 27 and that article (or
paragraph of the article) of the Special Part
of this Code which creates an offense committed
by the principal.
3. The features of character of a specific
accomplice shall be criminated only upon such
accomplice. Other circumstances that aggravate
responsibility and are provided for by articles
of the Special Part of this Code as the elements
of a crime that affect the treatment of the
principal's actions, shall be criminated only
upon the accomplice who was conscious of such
circumstances.
4. Where the principal commits an unconsummated
criminal offense, other accomplices shall
be criminally liable for complicity in an
unconsummated crime.
5. Accessories shall not be criminally liable
for the act committed by the principal, where
that act was no part of their intent.
Article 30. Criminal liability of organizers
and members of an organized group or criminal
organization
1. An organizer of an organized group or criminal
organization shall be criminally liable for
all the criminal offenses committed by the
organized group or criminal organization,
if those offenses were part of his intent.
2. Other members of an organized group or
criminal organization shall be criminally
liable for the criminal offenses prepared
or committed with their participation, regardless
of the role each of them had in such offenses.
Article 31. Voluntary renunciation of accomplices
1. In event of a principal's (or co-principals')
voluntary renunciation to commit a criminal
offense, he (or they) shall not be criminally
liable where the conditions prescribed by
Article 17 of this Code are satisfied. In
this event other accomplices shall be criminally
liable for the preparation of the criminal
offense or the attempted offense which was
voluntary renunciated by the principal.
2. An organizer, abettor or accessory shall
not be criminally liable in event of their
voluntary renunciation, where they averted
the offense or timely reported the preparation
or commission of the offense to appropriate
public authorities. The accessory's failure
to supply the means and tools or remove obstacles
for the offense shall also be regarded as
his voluntary renunciation.
3. In event of a voluntary renunciation of
any accomplice, the principal shall be criminally
liable for the preparation of the criminal
offense or for the attempted offense depending
on the stage at which his act was precluded.
