Amendments made to Tajikistan’s Penal Code note that people spreading infectious diseases would face up to five years in prison.
President Emomali Rahmon Rahmon on July 4 signed the law providing amendments to Article 207 of Tajikistan’s Penal Code – breach of sanitary-hygienic and anti-epidemic norms and rules caused by negligence mass disease or poisoning of people
People breaking the rules could be sentenced to between two and five years and if the action caused serious harm to health, a person would get a jail term of five to ten years, according to the Ministry of Justice.
Article 207 had previously stipulated that breach of sanitary-hygienic and anti-epidemic norms and rules caused by negligence mass disease or poisoning of people “is punishable by heavy fine, two years in correctional labor or up to two years in jail.
Recall, Emomali Rahmon on July 4 also signed the law penalizing for distribution of ‘inaccurate’ and ‘untruthful’ information about pandemic and not wearing face masks in public or failing to practice physical distancing of two meters.
The amendments made to the Administrative Code provide for a fine from 116 to 290 somoni for anyone not wearing a mask in public or failing to practice physical distancing of two meters. The amendments also made it an administrative offense to spread deliberately false information about the pandemic through media or the internet. Individuals found to be in breach will face fines of up to 580 somoni, while legal entities, ostensibly meaning media outlets, may have to pay 11,600 somoni.
