African Union Legal Instrument Article 30: 1. 2. P a g e | 33 Adapting certain offences to Information and Communication Technologies Property Offences a) State Parties shall take the necessary legislative and/or regulatory measures to criminalize the violation of property such as theft, fraud, handling of stolen property, abuse of trust, extortion of funds and blackmail involving computer data; b) State Parties shall take the necessary legislative and/or regulatory measures to consider as aggravating circumstances the use of information and communication technologies to commit offences such as theft, fraud, handling of stolen property, abuse of trust, extortion of funds, terrorism and money laundering; c) State Parties shall take the necessary legislative and/or regulatory measures to specifically include “by means of digital electronic communication” such as the Internet in listing the means of public dissemination provided for under the criminal law of State Parties; d) State Parties shall take the necessary criminal legislative measures to restrict access to protected systems which have been classified as critical national defence infrastructure due to the critical national security data they contain. Criminal liability for legal persons State Parties shall take the necessary legislative measures to ensure that legal persons other than the State, local communities and public institutions can be held responsible for the offences provided for by this Convention, committed on their behalf by their organs or representatives. The liability of legal persons does not exclude that of the natural persons who are the perpetrators of or accomplices in the same offences. Article 31: 1. Adapting certain sanctions to Information and Communication Technologies Criminal Sanctions a) State Parties shall take the necessary legislative measures to ensure that the offences provided for under this Convention are punishable by effective, proportionate and dissuasive criminal penalties; b) State Parties shall take the necessary legislative measures to ensure that the offences provided for under this Convention are punishable by appropriate penalties under their national legislations;