Dangerous self-defense: how to determine the limits of necessary defense

2023-07-06 12:54:07

Here is one person, a middle-class businessman, got into a delicate situation. The wife’s brother, who is also a brother-in-law, asked the businessman for financial assistance, allegedly for business development. Since the brother-in-law was never an entrepreneur, he looked like a proletarian in his early youth, and now he was looking for himself again, the businessman doubted the nobleness of the relative’s intentions and frightened him with the mysterious word “business plan”.

Shurin decided that the businessman was mocking him, and entered into an agreement with his friend. The businessman was deceived into allegedly going fishing. There, in the bosom of nature, having lulled the vigilance of the victim, they tied him up and began to tritely extort money. But in a modern way: they demanded to issue pin codes of bank cards and a deed of gift for some part of the property. The businessman turned out to be a strong and determined man.

He managed to escape from the clutches of his racketeer relative, applied it properly and ran away. True, the brother-in-law’s friend managed to shoot after him from a hunting rifle and wounded him in the leg. As a result, the brother-in-law died from injuries received during the confrontation. The businessman became lame and received a sentence for committing a serious crime. The investigator said: yes, your opponent is not a very good person, but it was you who killed him …

When interrogators and then investigators study the circumstances of such offenses and crimes, they are faced with the task of finding out whether the necessary defense was exceeded. The algorithm is this. The presence of a state of necessary defense at the time of causing harm to the victim is established. A clear inconsistency of protection with the nature and danger of the encroachment is determined. Established the presence of clear signs of a crime.

In turn, the nature and danger of the encroachment, which was rebuffed, is established by analyzing the following factual data. The direction of the attacker’s actions, the manifestation of his intent: threats, planning, tools and means of committing an attack, a method, etc. The ratio of attack and defense – physical data and the number of attackers, professional skills, use of weapons. The situation at the time of the attack – time, place, weather, the speed of the attack.

It is probably possible to understand some of our fellow citizens who do not dare to give a decisive rebuff in the event of an attack on them, even if physical data allow it. After the manifestation of masculine qualities, who wants to become a defendant in a criminal case, and as a result, a person under investigation? Perhaps the fact that a new legal norm has recently appeared will help the cause of confident self-defense.

By the Law of the Republic of Belarus dated May 26, 2021 No. 113-3 “On Amending Codes on Criminal Liability”, Article 34 of the Criminal Code was supplemented with part 4: “The actions of the defending person do not exceed the limits of necessary defense if this person, due to the unexpectedness of the encroachment, could not objectively assess nature and danger of encroachment”.

Once upon a time there was a simple man in the street. He worked, lived in a private house with a personal plot. On one of the usual days he had a day off after his shift. The inhabitant rested in the afternoon. In the meantime, a burglar walking with selfish goals laid eyes on the estate. The house was locked from the inside with a padlock, so the thief decided that all its inhabitants had gone out on daily business.

He entered the dwelling through the window and began methodically, knowingly to search the premises. But then the owner arose from his sleep, without noise and cry looked at what was happening, and only then began to punish the tramp for breaking into the house. So he reproached the thief with his hands and feet that he was taken to the hospital. After some time, both appeared before the court. Healed from beatings – on charges of attempted theft, not carried out for reasons beyond his control. The owner of the house – for causing grievous bodily harm.