Putin toughens penalty for bomb hoaxers in Russia

Moscow [Russia]: Bomb hoaxers in Russia can now face imprisonment up to 10 years after President Vladimir Putin on Saturday signed an amendment in the country’s Criminal Code law.

According to TASS news agency, the earlier version of the law had a maximum term of five years of rigorous imprisonment for the bomb hoaxers.

The amended law states that false phone calls that are made to “destabilize the activities of government agencies” shall be punished with a jail term for up to 6-8 years and the convicted will have to cough up more than 1 million rubles ($17,319).

Also in extreme cases, when false reports of bomb threats lead to the death of a person or other grave consequences, then the hoaxers will face from eight to 10 years of imprisonment.

These amendments come at a time when the Russian president amended its existing terrorism law to crack down on terrorist activities in the country and stringently punish those who finance terrorism or recruit terrorists. (ANI)