MOSCOW, April 26 (RAPSI) – People’s Assembly of Russia’s Republic of Ingushetia has submitted a bill fixing penalty of up to 3 years in prison for marriage by capture to the State Duma, according to the database of the parliament’s lower house.

Currently, bride stealing with the aim of marriage is punished under the Criminal Code’s article on kidnapping; but in most cases abductors can avoid penalties if they voluntarily release kidnaped persons, according to an explanatory note to the bill.

The document reads that such element of crime as bride kidnapping was not include in the Criminal Code drafted in 1996 because of popularity of marriage by capture in the limited part of Russia’s territory, especially in the North Caucasus Republics.

However, republics’ authorities may not establish punishment for such actions themselves because criminal legislation comes under the jurisdiction of the Russian Federation, according to the Constitution. Therefore, law enforcement authorities of the said republics do not have the right to bring abductors to responsibility.

Under the proposed bill, bride kidnapping would be punished with community service for up to 3 years or imprisonment of up to 3 years.

Bride kidnapping, a practice in which a man abducts the woman he wishes to marry, widely occurs in Russia’s Caucasus region.  Over the last years, such cases resulted in tragic consequences became more frequent in the North Caucasus Republics.