MOSCOW, April 6 (RAPSI) — The Russian Rights Commissioner Tatiana Moskalkova has urged to exclude a procedure, in the framework of which criminal cases are to be initiated after citizens submit their statements about crimes, so investigations could be started immediately after receiving the said statements.

The Ombudsman believes that it would be more effective to cancel the stage of the initiation of a criminal case citing the fact that until 1937 no such procedure had been in effect. At that time a person needed only to file an application, it was registered, and the process began immediately so as not to lose evidence; Moskalkova has also cited foreign experience in support of her point of view when speaking on air of the Russia 24 channel. The Rights Commissioner stressed that this proposal was supported not only by her, but also by a number of scientists, practitioners and expert communities, although the discussion was not over yet.

As Moskalkova said, routinely most part of the appeals her office receives relate to criminal procedural activities: investigation of crimes, refusals to initiate criminal cases, instances where persons who consider themselves victims of crimes are not allowed to take part in criminal proceedings at all.

Unfortunately, the Ombudsman said, in a very large percentage of cases, we establish that the respective probes were either actually not carried out, but only imitated, or they were carried out superficially, and people were denied access to justice.

The Rights Commissioner observed that in 2020, as a result of her petitions to the prosecutor's offices and compliance control bodies, more than 400 such decisions were canceled; at the same period, however, prosecutors themselves canceled over 1.8 million of such decisions.

Moskalkova believes that because of the number of the said appeals there was a systemic problem.

The Ombudsman also informed that the Federation Council, the upper house of Russia’s parliament, is currently developing a bill on applicants rights.

Her office, the Rights Commissioner said, raised this issue at various levels, and last year a meeting of the Security Council was held on this issue, an order was given to develop a draft law on which the Federation Council is now working. The new document is to strengthen the legal status of applicants.