MOSCOW, June 4 (RAPSI) – The Government Law-Making Commission has backed an initiative increasing the guarantees of material security for jurors, Chairman of the Board of the Association of Lawyers of Russia Vladimir Gruzdev has told RAPSI.

The bill is to amend Article 11 of the Federal Law “On Jurors of Federal Courts of General Jurisdiction in the Russian Federation”, according to which, for the time jurors fulfill the duties of administering justice, the respective court is to pay them compensations from the federal budget. At the same time, currently neither the payment procedures, nor the terms thereof, are established by law, the Ministry of Justice indicated earlier. The procedure for paying compensation to jurors is established by the government of the Russian Federation.

The implementation of the provisions stipulated by the draft law will increase the guarantees of material support for jurors, when they are administering justice in criminal cases, and streamline the procedure for paying them compensatory remuneration,” the Ministry of Justice specified.

According to Gruzdev, the adoption of these amendments will improve the guarantees of jurors’ material security when delivering justice in criminal matters. Under the law, the jury fee amounts to the half of a judge’s position salary pro rata per day basis.

In practice, there were situations when jurors were to wait for fees for a long time. Such facts were revealed by Russia’s Auditing Chamber, he stated.