A Bill on amendments to Articles 298 and 298' of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (concerning protection of monuments of cultural heritage), submitted by S. Husarov and V. Kelestyn, was registered in The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine.
The Bill (Reg. No. 4007) aims at extension of criminal amenability. The introduced changes envisage the following wording of Article 298 "Destruction, demolition or damage of the monuments objects of cultural heritage and unauthorized conducting of exploration works on archaeological object":
"1. Deliberate destruction, demolition or damage of the monuments objects of cultural heritage is punished by a fine of up to 200 non-taxable minimum incomes of citizens or imprisonment for a period of up to three years.
2. The same actions committed against monuments of national importance are punished by imprisonment for a period of 3-5 years.
3. Actions, envisaged by Part 1 or 2 of this Article, aimed at search for movable objects that refer to archaeological heritage are punished by imprisonment for 3-6 years.
4. Actions, envisaged by Part 1 or 2 of this Article, committed by an official, exploiting his/her official standing, are punished by imprisonment for a period of 5-8 years.
People´s Deputies also call for extension of amenability for destruction, damaging or concealment of documents or unique documents of National Archival Fund.
The authors motivate the submission of the Bill by the fact that quite often citizens and officials of the companies, institutions and organizations neglect the requirements of legislation on protection of objects of cultural heritage, which leads to damage, destruction or demolition of the objects of cultural heritage. The People´s Deputies are convinced that current legislation of Ukraine envisages relatively light amenability for these offences.