An interdepartmental meeting on compliance with the law during criminal investigations was held at the Vitebsk Regional Prosecutor's Office
The study of the practice of putting wanted persons who have absconded from preliminary investigation bodies on the wanted list has shown that the criminal prosecution bodies of the Vitebsk region are carrying out significant work in this direction.
As a result of the measures taken by the Internal Affairs bodies of the region to search for this category of persons, the whereabouts of 615 wanted criminals who had absconded from preliminary investigation bodies were established in 2016.
However, prosecutorial inspections have revealed problematic issues requiring joint consideration.
The study of criminal cases by prosecutors, in which decisions are made to suspend the investigation due to the search for the accused, shows that violations of the criminal procedure law continue to occur.
Thus, in the Polotsk Investigative Committee Department and the Vitebsk City Investigative Committee Department, facts of investigators issuing decisions to involve persons as accused without sufficient collected evidence were established.
There are cases of improper conduct of investigative actions aimed at proving the guilt of suspects in committing crimes, untimely presentation of charges, and selection of a measure of restraint in the form of detention, where there are grounds for it, which allows persons to evade justice for a long time and commit new intentional crimes (Verkhnedvinsk, Lepel District Investigative Committee Departments, Polotsk and Orsha District Investigative Committee Departments, Vitebsk City Investigative Committee Department).
In turn, the principled position of individual prosecutors deserves positive evaluation. When sending criminal cases to court, they changed the measure of restraint to detention for persons who committed audacious crimes and had previously been repeatedly convicted. Such decisions were made by the prosecutor of Novopolotsk - in 9 criminal cases, the prosecutor of Vitebsk - in 6 cases, the prosecutors of Polotsk and Dubrovno districts - in 2 cases).
Based on the results of the meeting, prosecutors and bodies
The Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Investigative Committee have been tasked with taking additional measures aimed at eliminating existing shortcomings and improving work efficiency.
R. Chudakov, D. Lutov, A. Nizyulko