A woman from Polotsk was imprisoned for a year for a false denunciation

A young woman reported to the duty officer of the Vitebsk Department of Internal Affairs for Transport, stating that her laptop, wired mouse, 16 GB flash drive, and a service coupon, worth almost Br7 million, had been stolen at the train station.

The police officers had doubts during the crime scene investigation, which were confirmed shortly thereafter. It turned out that there was no theft: the "victim" decided to deceive the police at the request of her cohabitant, who had purchased a laptop on credit five days prior, insured it, and immediately sold it. The couple conceived the cunning scheme to obtain insurance money.

The duty officer repeatedly warned the applicant about criminal liability for knowingly false denunciation, but to no avail – she insisted on her claim. As a result, the woman went from being a victim to an accused under Part 1 of Article 400 of the Criminal Code.

The penalties for knowingly false denunciation are quite severe, as explained by Oksana Baleeva, head of the Vitebsk Regional Prosecutor's Office:

– A "simple" denunciation entails a large fine, or three months of arrest, or restriction of liberty for up to two years. A qualified denunciation, i.e., with aggravating circumstances – accusation of a grave crime or artificial creation of evidence for accusation (forgery of evidence, bribery of false witnesses, etc.), or a denunciation committed for mercenary motives, carries a risk of imprisonment for up to five years.

In this case, the accused was sentenced to one year of restriction of liberty. She was sent to a general regime colony because she committed the crime while already having a suspended sentence for theft.

By the way, the 25-year-old deceiver has two young children, who were taken away from her even before the crime was committed.

Olga KRUCHENKOVA, SB Belarus Today