A proposed amendment to the Criminal Code would allow law enforcement officials to be jailed for up to 15 years for negligence in failing to prevent a terrorist attack, a news report said Thursday.
The author of the amendment, Federation Council Senator Konstantin Dobrynin, wants to include "appeasement of terrorism" to the article relating to negligence in the Criminal Code, Rossiiskaya Gazeta reported Thursday.
Under the proposal, officials who are found guilty of having "created favorable conditions for terrorists" through professional negligence could be held liable for "a terrorism-related crime through connivance," Rossiiskaya Gazeta said.
Upon conviction, both state officials and employees of law enforcement agencies could be given a lifelong ban from public office, demoted, stripped of their honorary titles and state awards and face a prison sentence of up to 15 years.
Some State Duma members preached caution in implementing wider reaching anti-terrorism legislation.
State Duma member Boris Reznik said the amendment would have allowed officials in Volgograd to be prosecuted over two recent bombings in the city.
"Their guilt is indirect, there is no direct intent, they may also suffer emotionally from what has happened in their region," Reznik said.
The twin attacks in Volgograd in December killed at least 34 people and brought the total number of strikes in the city to three in a period of two months.