Article 77. A Conviction

 

1. A person convicted for the commission of a crime shall be considered convicted from the day of the entering of a court's incriminating judgment into legal force until the moment of exculpation or removal of a conviction. In accordance with the present Code, a conviction shall be taken into consideration in case of a repetition of crime, criminal recidivism, and when appointing punishment.

 

2. A person exempt from punishment shall be recognised as not having a conviction.

 

3. A conviction shall be exculpated as follows:

 

a) with regard to persons convicted with a suspended sentence, upon the expiration of their probation period;

 

b) with regard to military servicemen who served punishment in the form of detention in a disciplinary military unit, restriction in military service, or detention under arrest, upon actual endurance of punishment;

 

c) with regard to persons convicted and sentenced to more lenient types of punishment than deprivation of freedom, upon the expiration of one year after the endurance of punishment;

 

d) with regard to persons convicted and sentenced to deprivation of freedom for a crime of a lesser or medium gravity, upon the expiration of three years after the endurance of punishment;

 

e) with regard to persons convicted and sentenced to deprivation of freedom for grave crimes, upon the expiration of six years after the endurance of punishment;

 

f) with regard to persons convicted for especially grave crimes, upon the expiration of eight years after the endurance of punishment.

 

4. If, through the procedure established by legislation, a convict was exempt from the endurance of punishment or an unserved term was substituted for a more lenient type of punishment, then the period of exculpation of a conviction shall be calculated based on the actually served term of punishment from the moment of release from the endurance of the principal and additional types of punishment.

 

5. If a convict after the endurance of punishment behaved without reproach, then, pursuant to his petition, a court may remove a conviction from him prior to the expiration of a period for its exculpation.

 

6. If, prior to the expiration of the term of exculpation of his conviction, a given convict committed a new crime, then the running of a period after which a given conviction is to be exculpated, shall be interrupted. A period of exculpation of a conviction under the first crime shall be calculated anew after the actual endurance of the principal and additional punishment for the last crime. In these cases a person shall be considered convicted for both crimes prior to the expiration of the period for exculpation of a conviction for a crime which is the more grave of them.

 

7. Exculpation or removal of a conviction shall cancel all legal consequences associated with a conviction.