MOSCOW, April 29 (RAPSI) – The Russian Prosecutor General’s Office proposed a bill allowing seizure of illegally acquired property that was drafted in assistance with the the State Duma's Security and Anti-Corruption Committee, Vedomosti newspaper reported on Wednesday.

Prosecutor General Yury Chaika spoke in his annual report to parliament about introducing provisions on the confiscation in rem (civil procedures against property).

A bill to this effect has been sent to the president, the State Duma and other legislative agencies, according to Vedomosti.

Chaika said in his report that the Swiss authorities would transfer about 500 million euros seized from Russian embezzlement suspects at the request of the Russian Prosecutor General’s Office. Damages under closed and suspended corruption proceedings have been estimated at over 39 billion rubles ($746 million), which is 50 percent more than last year. Of this sum, over 2.4 billion rubles ($46 million) has been paid in voluntary compensation.

Reports on the drafting of this bill were made in May 2014. Under it, the courts would be able to confiscate the suspects’ illegally acquired property and income at the prosecutors’ request, even if this property and income are not involved in criminal activity. The Prosecutor General’s Office also proposed a mechanism for confiscating property that cannot be seized under existing legislation because the suspect is dead or his or her whereabouts are unknown.

Prosecutors can request that the court confiscate a suspect’s property if they have reason to believe that it was acquired in a manner that runs contrary to the law.