Criminal proceedings issues were discussed at meeting of Expert Council’s section under High Commissioner
A regular meeting of the Expert Council’s section was held with the High Commissioner for Human Rights in the Russian Federation on the issues of ensuring human and civil rights and freedoms in criminal proceedings and places of detention.
In 2016, the Office of the High Commissioner received 3681 requests for assistance to people in places of forced detention, for the first half of 2017 — 2171.
One of the requirements of the Ministry of Justice of Russia in the criminal executive system activity improving is the development of an algorithm for addressing and transporting convicts to correctional institutions located at their place of residence. The basis for this requirement is the European Prison Rules (§ 17.1.).
However, at present, convicts and their relatives can not get a justified explanation of the need to transport a particular person to remote regions of the country to serve their sentence.
For this reason, the members of the Expert Council discussed the draft federal law "On Amending Articles 73 and 81 of the Criminal Executive Code of the Russian Federation" and decided to hold a joint meeting with representatives of the General Prosecutor’s Office of the Russian Federation and the Federal Penitentiary Service of Russia on this topic.
Besides, the participants of the meeting paid special attention to the case that is under control of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in the Russian Federation concerning Osipenko Yu., who is gaoled in the FKU
In 2008, Osipenko was on trial as a witness, then became a suspect, and then became a defendant. Osipenko was taken into custody in June 2010. However, he was not recognized guilty until September 2016, he was sentenced to 9 years in prison.
The general opinion of the members of the Expert Council is that such a long period of detention pending a court decision is unacceptable. The participants of the meeting asked the High Commissioner to amend the legislation of the Russian Federation in order to limit the possibility of an endless extension of the detention period by courts.
It is expected that on September 15 the court will begin to consider an appeal of this resonant case.