ST. PETERSBURG, October 18 (RAPSI, Mikhail Telekhov) — The preferential rules for counting the time spent in a pretrial detention centers do not apply to those sentenced to imprisonment in general regime colonies or colony-settlements, if they are transferred to pretrial detention centers in connection with some other criminal case and are not taken into custody. 

The Russian Constitutional Court indicated in its determination published on its website that such persons just continue to serve their sentences. 

By its decision, the Constitutional Court dismissed a complaint submitted by Ivan Karpinchik, who tried to challenge the constitutionality of the relevant provisions of the Criminal Code and the Criminal Procedure Code.

The contested norms as applied to the Karpinchik case envisage that one day of detention is counted for one and a half days of serving a sentence in a general regime correctional colony and for two days in a colony-settlement.

The applicant, who was sentenced to imprisonment, believes that these norms do not comply with the Russian Constitution, since they do not apply preferential rules for calculating the time of detention as to those transferred to a pretrial detention center from a general regime colony or from a colony-settlement in connection with proceedings in another criminal case.

The Constitutional Court indicated that the very fact of leaving convicts to imprisonment in a pretrial detention center or their transfer to a pretrial detention center from a correctional colony does not and cannot change the grounds and conditions for the execution of the punishment determined by a court decision that has entered into legal force.

Therefore, this period is included in the term of imprisonment served by such convicted persons and does not imply the application of a measure of criminal procedural restraint in the form of detention, what means that the respective norms of the Criminal Code are not applicable to such persons, the Constitutional Court ruled.