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MongoliaThe Legal System
Criminal Code
According to the 1961 Criminal Code, a crime was a socially
dangerous act or failure to act. Insignificant acts that did not
present a "social danger" were not considered crimes, even though
they may have violated the letter of the law. Crimes committed
against the state and socialist ownership were considered more
serious than crimes against private persons. Crimes against the
state included treason, espionage, terrorism, sabotage, and
smuggling. Crimes against socialist ownership included theft,
misappropriation, or embezzlement of state property; and
intentional or negligent destruction of state property. Other
crimes listed in the criminal code included murder; deliberate
crippling; mayhem; impairing the health of others; rape; theft;
banditry; vagrancy; destruction of state, communal, or individual
property; slander; insult; misuse of guardianship; false
imprisonment; forgery; hindering people in voting; illegal search
of homes; violation of the privacy of correspondence, of labor
laws, or of the separation of church and state, or church and
school; and interference with religious freedom.
Generally, any crimes committed by military personnel and
active-duty reservists were treated as military crimes. Specific
military crimes included insubordination, desertion, unwarranted
absence or abandonment of a duty station, evading military
service through self-mutilation, violations of guard-duty rules,
and mistreatment of prisoners of war.
Close attention was given to equal rights for women.
According to the 1961 Criminal Code, it was a crime to force a
woman to marry or to prevent her marriage, to violate the equal
rights of women (for example, by preventing them from studying in
a school or working in a state agency or in industry), and to
refuse jobs to pregnant women or to mothers.
People sixteen and older were considered legal adults. Those
between the ages of fourteen and sixteen were treated as
juveniles, except in the most serious cases. Courts were
encouraged to apply "compulsory measures of education" rather
than criminal penalties to people younger than eighteen who had
committed crimes, unless doing so would risk a serious danger to
society.
According to the criminal code, punishment was intended to
reeducate and correct the offender's behavior rather than to
inflict bodily harm or humiliation. If court sentences were
reversed, the official responsible for wrongly imposing
punishment was liable to criminal court or disciplinary action.
Punishments consisted of confinement in prisons or
correctional labor colonies, assignment of correctional tasks
without deprivation of freedom, deportation from the country,
prohibition from holding public executive or managerial jobs,
fines, public reprimands, confiscation of private property,
expulsion from one's native aymag, and loss of the right
to hold public office. For treason, espionage, public subversion
(which covers a variety of antistate crimes), murder, and armed
banditry, the death penalty could be imposed. Women were exempt
from the death penalty, as were men younger than eighteen or
older than sixty.
Prison sentences generally were limited to terms of six
months to ten years, but repeated criminal acts could be punished
by prison terms as long as fifteen years. Minor theft and
embezzlement usually were punished by imprisonment of up to one
year, plus eighteen months of correctional tasks to be served at
the convicted person's place of work or residence; repeat
offenders could receive sentences of one to five years in prison.
Stricter punishments could be imposed on those who
misappropriated, plundered, or stole state and public property.
They could be sentenced to up to seven years in prison, and
repeat offenders could be sentenced to six to fifteen years, in
some cases accompanied by full or partial confiscation of
property. Stealing private property could be punished by terms of
up to five years in jail or by eighteen months of correctional
tasks without deprivation of freedom; repeat offenders could
receive five to ten years in prison. Robbery with the use or
threat of force could be punished by imprisonment for ten years,
and repeat offenders could be imprisoned eight to fifteen years.
Malicious embezzlement and squandering of state property were
punishable by death by a firing squad and confiscation of private
property. A sentence of death, ten to fifteen years in prison, or
property confiscation was meted out to persons using force in
robbery or banditry; misappropriating funds and property, or
dissipating them by illegal consumption; abusing their official
positions; swindling; extorting; or showing carelessness or
negligence in the discharge of official duties. Terms spent in
jail awaiting trial counted toward completion of the sentence,
and probation was permissible after one to five years in prison
had been served. There were statutes of limitation for most
crimes, and pardons occasionally were granted. Penalties against
violators of public order consisted of warnings, public rebukes,
fines, imprisonment, and compulsory labor for five to thirty
days.
Data as of June 1989
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