The Constitutional Court of Russia banned the destruction of material evidence

RG: The Constitutional Court banned the destruction of physical evidence in several criminal cases

The Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation ruled that physical evidence used in several criminal cases must be preserved until a verdict is delivered in each of them. About it informs Rossiyskaya Gazeta website.

This decision was made after studying the case of drug dealer Vadim Skotnikov. In his case, a substance that had been found to be evidence in two criminal cases was destroyed after the sentencing in one of the cases.

The drug dealer’s defense tried to use this situation as an argument in favor of the fact that the evidence was inadmissible, and the case was transferred to the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation.

The Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation came to the conclusion that in the Code of Criminal Procedure of the Russian Federation two articles relating to evidence contradict each other.

One of them determines the procedure for storing material evidence and serves as the basis for the destruction of material evidence if they were used in another criminal case.

The second declares that “in a trial, all evidence in a criminal case is subject to direct examination.”

For the consideration of a criminal case, as the court noted, evidence can be critical, and the court must be able to evaluate it on the basis of the law and its inner conviction.

The federal legislator was instructed to eliminate this contradiction, and the case of Vadim Skotnikov is now subject to review.