From July 1 amendments to the Criminal and Criminal Procedure Codes of Ukraine will come into force and a simplified procedure for pre-trial investigation of all minor criminal offenses is introduced. Investigators – officials of the inquiry unit of the National Police – will investigate criminal offenses.
Attorney of ADER HABER Law Firm Vladimir Babichev believes that the new version of the CPC will impair the effectiveness of the pre-trial investigation, as it is possible to replace the sources of evidence with new ones.
“Now the sources of evidence can be the explanations of persons, the results of medical examinations, expert opinion, indications of technical devices and technical means that have the functions of photography and filming, video recording, or means of photography and filming, video recording. When a person is detained for committing a criminal offense, things and documents that are instruments and means of committing an offense will be confiscated. ” – an attorney specified.
The investigator will be able to carry out procedural actions in order to obtain the above-mentioned sources of evidence before entering the information into the Unified Register of Pre-trial Investigations.
And this, according to Volodymyr Babichev, will make it difficult to verify compliance with the procedure for obtaining them and the source of origin, which can become a mechanism for falsifications.
In addition, according to the expert, it is impractical to put on the same level the conclusion of the coroner and the conclusion of the investigator on misconduct.
“The investigator is not responsible for the result of his conclusions, which the court can then use as a source of evidence. The procedure for obtaining the investigator’s opinion has been repeatedly changed in the CPC of Ukraine, but it is established and regulated by law. The procedure for obtaining the opinion of the coroner is still unregulated, and therefore there are opportunities for abuse by participants in criminal proceedings. “ – an attorney added.