Chamber of Representatives Adopts Amendments Related to Prosecution of State Officials

Source: www.charter97.org

On 7 December the Chamber of Representatives adopted in two readings a project of amendments and additions to some legislative acts on the issue of criminal prosecution of certain categories of citizens and other issues of criminal prosecution.

As said by a director of the National Center of Law project work by the president Valery Mitskevich, the project has been worked out in line with an order of the president. In particular, a new clause is added to the Code of criminal procedure. It regulates the peculiarities of criminal prosecution of some categories of officials – judges, deputies of the Chamber of Representatives and of the Soviet of the Republic, deputies of local Soviets, prosecutors and people`s assessors. Officials included to the staff register of the president. As said by Valery Mitskevich, ‘the importance and the level of decisions taken by them require particular legal guarantees’.

The project for instance stipulates that bringing up criminal actions against persons on the register could be done only with the sanction of the president, and against deputies sanctioned by the prosecutor general. Otherwise they can be detained only in case of treason against the State or in the act.

A week ago the Chamber of Representatives sent this draft law for reworking, as they believe that officials had better defence than deputies.