President Sooronbai Jeenbekov signed an objection to the Law of the Kyrgyz Republic On Amendments to Certain Legislative Acts in the Sphere of Criminal Law to develop an agreed option.
The grounds for the objection were some changes made to the Criminal Code of the Kyrgyz Republic (CC) and the Criminal Procedure Code of the Kyrgyz Republic (CPC).
In particular, the norm proposed by part 7 of Article 62 of the Criminal Code provides that if the person subject to notification of suspicion is not established, the criminal case will be terminated after the expiration of the statute of limitations for criminal prosecution, ”the presidential press service said.
The head of state believes that these changes pose risks for corruption in the bodies of inquiry and investigation during pre-trial proceedings, and he suggests leaving this norm in the current version.
“The new version of Article 114 of the Criminal Procedure Code regulates the application of bail as a preventive measure against persons suspected or accused of committing crimes. However, the list of crimes and cases for which bail as a preventive measure is not established does not include all corruption crimes committed by officials, ”the statement says.
Due to the fact that corruption crimes pose a significant danger to society and the state as a whole, it is proposed to expand this list taking into account these crimes.
By the adopted law, paragraph 3 of part 4 of Article 442 and paragraph 3 of part 4 of Article 444 of the CPC, which provides for the grounds for the resumption of proceedings in the case, as well as the timing of the resumption of proceedings, were declared invalid.
The head of state noted that the adoption of the above amendments may lead to the restriction of everyone’s constitutional rights to protect their rights and freedoms in all ways that are not prohibited by law, including, following international treaties, appeal to international human rights bodies, which is not permissible in realities of a democratic state, the highest values of which are human, his life, health, rights, and freedoms.
The Minister of Internal Affairs of the Kyrgyz Republic will have to introduce the president’s objections in parliament.
Let us remind you that on June 25, Kyrgyz deputies “worked hard”: they adopted several scandalous bills at once. Among them is the new version of the republic’s criminal procedure code, which, according to human rights activists, nullified all positive achievements in the judicial and legal system.
The amendments were submitted for public discussion shortly before the introduction of special regimes in the republic in connection with the coronavirus pandemic, which virtually ruled out the possibility of a full discussion of the bill by the public, experts, scientists, lawyers, and interested organizations.
Human rights defenders from the Coalition Against Torture of Kyrgyzstan analyzed the document and found that the changes were supposed to unprecedentedly expand the powers of inquiry agencies and officials of inquiry agencies.
Among other disturbing changes was the exclusion of the new version of the Criminal Procedure Code of the rule on the revision of the sentence in case of recognition of human rights violations by international bodies. The new bill invalidated and excluded from the CPC such a basis for reviewing a case on new circumstances as the establishment by international bodies, per international treaties of the Kyrgyz Republic, of violation of human rights and freedoms when the court of the Kyrgyz Republic considers this criminal case. This aspect was widely reported in the media and was mentioned among the president’s objections.
Lawyer Arsen Ambaryan shared his opinion with ACCA on the objections of the head of state to amendments to the Criminal Procedure Code. He believes that if the objections touched only four articles specified in the press service of the president, then the “agreed” version will still raise a lot of questions from the point of view of human rights.
“Although to see the full text of the president’s objections has not yet been possible, it is gratifying that the head drew attention to the articles concerning the possibility of challenging the verdicts of national courts in international instances and gave strong arguments for this,” the expert noted.
“But these are not the most terrible changes and additions that the Ministry of Internal Affairs is trying to push through. In the rejected edition, for example, total wiretapping of citizens’ cell phones is allowed. Is this not a flagrant violation of human rights? It also introduces an addition to the procedure for depositing testimony (interrogation) of a defense witness. According to the legislator’s plan, the investigating judge on his initiative (!) сan summon an investigator, an authorized official of the inquiry body to a court session as part of the interrogation of the victim, a witness at the request of the defense side. And where is the principle of the impartiality of the court and the equality of the parties? The list of changes and additions of concern can be continued. Colleagues who also analyzed the draft law as a whole warned about them, ”the lawyer says.
Ambaryan expressed hope that the president and his administration paid attention to all the problem areas of the controversial bill. He also noted that not all of the proposed amendments are negative.
“Now, most likely, the new convocation of the parliament in accordance with the regulations will consider the objections of the head of state. I would like to note one positive addition to the CPC, about which for some reason nothing is said in the justification certificate. Legislators made a timid attempt to abolish one of the inexplicable restrictions that are typical for all categories of convicted persons, regardless of the terms of punishment and regime – restrictions on receiving parcels. Such differences in restrictions have no rational explanation: neither by the behavior, nor by the personality of a particular convict, nor by necessity, but are associated only with the regime. They are based on the Soviet principle: the stricter the regime, the stricter all the restrictions. Restrictions are based only on the severity of the punishment and are not proportional to the objectives of the punishment. I believe that restrictions, in addition to imprisonment, harm health, do not contribute to the correction of convicts and the maintenance of family ties, and all other restrictions must be canceled, ”explained Arsen Ambaryan.
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