27.01.2026

Plenum of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Azerbaijan, chaired by Farhad Abdullayev, held a regular session.

At the court session was examined the constitutional case based on the request of the Prosecutor's Office of the Republic of Azerbaijan on the joint interpretation of Article 14.2 (insignificant acts) and Article 228.1 (illegal circulation of weapons and ammunition) of the Criminal Code in terms of Article 80 of the Constitution of the Republic of Azerbaijan.

The decision states that according to Article 14.2 of the Criminal Code, even if an act has formal signs of a crime, if that act is of minor importance and does not pose a real threat to society, it is not considered a crime. That is, acts that do not harm the individual, society, or the state, or that do not pose a threat of such harm, do not create criminal liability.

The Constitutional Court emphasizes that the term " insignificant act" refers to behavior that is not socially dangerous and that such acts are not included in the definition of a crime due to their nature.

At the same time, it is noted that the concept of "insignificance" is of an evaluative nature. That is, it is up to the law enforcement authorities - the investigation, prosecutor's office, and the courts - to determine whether an act is insignificant in each specific case. When conducting this assessment, all factual circumstances of the case must be thoroughly investigated, and the person to whom the act was directed, what object it was directed at, the circumstances under which it was committed, and the person's intent must be taken into account.

Special attention is also paid to Article 228.1 of the Criminal Code. According to that article, the illegal acquisition, storage, transportation, transfer to another person, or carrying of firearms, their parts, ammunition, explosives, and devices (with the exception of smooth-bore hunting weapons and their ammunition) constitutes criminal liability.

The Constitutional Court notes that the law on the specific amount of ammunition for criminal liability under this article does not establish any minimum limit. The reason for this is that ammunition has varying degrees of danger, and even a single usable cartridge has the potential to pose a serious threat to human life and health.

The Plenum of the Constitutional Court considers that since the characteristic of "insignificance" is of an evaluative nature, the small significance of the act specified in Article 228.1 of the Criminal Code is determined by law enforcement agencies depending on the actual circumstances of each case. In this case, the quantitative indicator of ammunition (number of cartridges) should be evaluated only in conjunction with other indicators that allow determining the public danger of the offense (motive, purpose, place, time, circumstances, etc.).