Deputies supported the Supreme Court bill on the humanization of the Criminal Procedure Code

The State Duma on Tuesday approved in the first reading amendments of the Supreme Court (SC) to the Criminal Procedure Code (CPC) to limit the use of arrest against women and disabled people accused of minor crimes. During the discussion, some deputies proposed expanding the norms, while others, on the contrary, were afraid of their too broad application. But in general, almost everyone agreed with the need to humanize criminal legislation.

Let us recall that on June 15, the Supreme Court introduced a bill to the State Duma limiting the use of arrest as a preventive measure for certain categories of citizens. The initiative completely excludes the possibility of imprisoning women with young children in criminal cases of crimes of minor gravity, and in cases of crimes of medium gravity they can be arrested only in exceptional cases. Also, a preventive measure in the form of detention cannot be chosen against an accused or suspect if he suffers from a serious illness. As stated in the explanatory note to the bill, over the past year the courts arrested more than 55 thousand people accused of non-violent crimes, including almost 1.4 thousand women with young children, and 224 disabled people of groups I and II.

Deputy Chairman of the Supreme Court, Chairman of the Judicial Collegium for Criminal Cases Vladimir Davydov, speaking on the bill, noted that the legislation provides for a procedure for changing the preventive measure for persons suffering from serious illnesses. “But in the legal regulation there is no similar rule that should be taken into account by the courts at the initial stage of considering petitions, namely when choosing such a preventive measure,” explained the representative of the Supreme Court. He promised that the adoption of the bill “will contribute to the further humanization of criminal procedure legislation.” And the first deputy chairman of the State Duma Committee on Legislation, Irina Pankina (United Russia), added that the initiative was developed in pursuance of the president’s instructions.

Elena Drapeko (A Just Russia – For Truth) said that during the discussion of the bill in the Socialist Revolutionary faction, “a heated argument broke out” about in what cases the norms would be applied. “If a woman with depression has not committed a crime, but only a threat of violence against a child, can she be arrested? Why should we limit the courts? After all, the cases are very different,” asked Mrs. Drapeko.

The Deputy Chairman of the Supreme Court recalled that the threat of violence falls into the category of violent crimes (this means that the mitigation of legislation will not apply to such a case). Vladimir Davydov said that, according to the Supreme Court, last year a quarter of those in custody were arrested for crimes of minor gravity. “We are talking about a preventive measure. The person is not yet guilty, it is not yet known whether his guilt will be proven, the investigation is still underway, and people are already in prison,” Mr. Davydov emphasized. “By and large, legislation should be designed in such a way that before the trial the maximum number of people are under house arrest, under bail or more lenient preventive measures.”

Chairman of the State Duma Committee on Family Affairs Nina Ostanina (Communist Party of the Russian Federation) proposed extending the provisions of the bill to older people. The Deputy Chairman of the Supreme Court did not object: “Perhaps there are other categories of persons for whom it would be possible to provide additional procedural guarantees.”

Artem Prokofiev (KPRF) shared “a strong feeling that the law enforcement system has a mistrust of alternative preventive measures.” Vladimir Davydov did not agree with this: “Even 20 years ago, our courts arrested almost half a million people. And last year, 85 thousand people were arrested. For the first half of this year – 44,700 people.” According to the deputy chairman of the Armed Forces, house arrest has become more widely used. But with the pledge “there are problems”: “They have made this procedure very complicated. The law enforcement officer doesn’t really want to do this.”

Deputy Chairman of the Duma Committee on Health Protection Alexei Kurinny (Communist Party of the Russian Federation) noted that the bill does not contain a list of serious diseases that a person must suffer from in order to avoid arrest. He also drew attention to the fact that the document does not say about the procedure for confirming medical documents. “You can get a bunch of certificates from different medical institutions, including private ones,” the deputy explained. In his opinion, in this form, the rules create conditions “for too broad application and for corruption.” Vladimir Davydov believes that “practice will develop criteria for what a medical report should be.” But he is convinced that the list of diseases should be broader than the one that is currently used in matters of changing the preventive measure.

The parliamentarians had no other objections, and 395 deputies voted for the adoption of the bill in the first reading, with three abstentions.

Ksenia Veretennikova