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What Will the New Criminal Code Bring?

What Will the New Criminal Code Bring?

Two months later, new criminal legislation comes into force, the concept of which is built on the principles of humanizing justice and strict observance of the rule of law at all stages of a criminal case.

On October 30, during a meeting in the ExpertCafe format, representatives of law enforcement agencies, prosecutors, lawyers, the academic environment and the judicial system told about exactly what changes will take place on January 1, 2019, and how these changes will affect the lives of ordinary citizens.

Humanization of justice

So, in the new criminal legislation concepts such as crime and misconduct are separated. To misconduct attributed actions that do not represent a great danger or harm. Accordingly, the types of punishments will be milder, fines, correctional work, removal from office, etc., but not imprisonment.

Coordinator of the new criminal legislation of the Government of the Kyrgyz Republic, Head of the Investigation Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Kyrgyz Republic, Begaly Pirmatov, said that after the new year, law enforcement agencies will create inquiry units to investigate misconduct.

“In order to optimize work in law enforcement agencies, 625 people have been reduced, 225 full-time units will be created in the inquiry units,” Pirmatov said.

Experts unanimously recognize this innovation as progressive: the deprivation of liberty for a crime of small and medium gravity has long been necessary to reconsider. According to statistics, relapse among prisoners is 40%, which means that the punitive method only worsens the overall criminality in the country.

The new Criminal Code provides for a reduction in prison terms for certain types of crimes, which, according to the logic of the authors of the law, will reduce the cost of prisons.

The balance of powers between the law bodies is changing

From the new year, all crimes and misdemeanors will necessarily be registered in the electronic database – the Unified Register of Crimes and Offenses of the EPPR.

According to Azizbek Shukurbekov, the prosecutor of the Office of the Prosecutor General of the Kyrgyz Republic, information about the start of pre-trial proceedings, procedural actions, the movement of the criminal case, etc. will be entered into the Base.

“An interdepartmental order has already been signed with all law enforcement agencies on the introduction of a single form of a statement about the crime committed and a single form of the protocol on the crime being committed or being prepared. When filling out forms, information will be immediately entered into the program. Access will be provided to the supervising prosecutor as well as to the parties to the process. For example, the applicant, having received a ticket and a code, will be able to track at what stage his application is, who is considering his case,” Shukurbekov said.

Thus, law enforcement agencies will keep records and records of crimes and misdemeanors, while the prosecutor’s office will oversee the legality and timeliness of registration. As the experts assured, the information in the EP cannot be changed or deleted.

Judicial control of the investigation

From the new year, the Institute of the investigative judge is introduced. The investigating judge ensures the legality of the procedural actions from the moment the application is received until the transfer of the case to the court. As the sector head for work with the legislation of the Supreme Court Rasiya Eralieva, said, the investigating judge has a lot of responsibility and wide powers.

It is the investigative judge who determines the legality and validity of the detention, the need for special investigative actions, such as listening to conversations, obtaining information about connections between subscribers, audio and video monitoring of a person or place, etc.

The investigating judge has the right to deposit evidence, that is, the interrogation of a witness and/or a victim at the request of one of the parties.

The deposition “preserves” the testimony before the court since after this procedure there will be no further interrogation. The main purpose of the deposit is to prevent intimidation of witnesses and victims, to avoid re-interrogation of minors, without subjecting them to additional psychological trauma.

But at the same time, the investigating judge does not have the right to investigate or decide on the guilt or innocence of the suspect in court. He should monitor compliance with the law during investigative actions.

Practice polishes theory

Now law enforcement agencies, the judicial system, the prosecutor’s office, the legal profession, in cooperation with the donor community, conduct training for their employees, implement pilot projects in order to launch them from January 1, 2019. Experts say that certain gaps in criminal law will be eliminated during practice.

“For example, in Kazakhstan, after the introduction of the new Criminal Code, 218 changes were made,” the Supreme Court judge Askat Sydykov said.

“We should not slow down the introduction of new criminal legislation for fear of possible obstacles. Obstacles must be overcome since it is no longer possible to live according to the old code, ”said one of the innovators, the dean of the law faculty of the Kyrgyz National University.

[This content was automatically translated from Russian language]

Kyrgyz Bailiffs to Improve Service Quality

Kyrgyz Bailiffs to Improve Service Quality

In Kyrgyzstan, the strategy for the development of the bailiff service is being discussed through the introduction of an automated register of debtors, electronic trading and the implementation of an action plan. This was announced on October 9 at a round table organized by the Judicial Department of the Supreme Court of the Kyrgyz Republic with the support of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and the International Development Law Organization (IDLO).

According to Nurlan Pirnazarov, Head of the Department for the Enforcement of Judicial Acts, increasing confidence in bailiffs through enhancing human resources, increasing the number of bailiffs, wages and social security, their training and improving the infrastructure are important tasks of this performers.

In addition, attention is paid to the automation of processes to improve the performance of bailiffs. At the round table shared intermediate results of the pilot projects on the register of debtors and electronic trading.

“The system of electronic registration“ The Register of Debtors ”automates the process of entering data on the one hand, and on the other – will facilitate the access of citizens to information that the availability and amount of debt can find out via the Internet,” said Alexander Yuryev, director of the Information Technology Institution.

The event was held in the framework of the project “Enhancing the capacity of judicial executors of the Kyrgyz Republic” with the participation of the EBRD General Counsel Marie-Anne Birken and Fred Houston, Director of the IDLO branch in Kyrgyzstan. In addition to the main issues of the strategy, participants discussed topical issues on the application of the Criminal Code, the Code of Misconduct and the Code of violations in enforcement proceedings.

Recall that the bailiff is an official who enforces the execution of decisions of courts in civil cases, settlement agreements, sentences, rulings and decisions of courts in criminal cases in terms of property penalties.

[This content was automatically translated from the Russian language]

Cholpon Djakupova: We Have to Implement the Standards of Justice

Cholpon Djakupova: We Have to Implement the Standards of Justice

Director of the “Adilet” legal clinic Cholpon Djakupova talks about the justice in the country, and shares her opinion on the criteria for fair justice:

Standards of Justice.

Standards for a fair trial of cases are well established in international law, and they are reflected quite well in national legislation. But the ordinary citizen is not interested in the subtleties of procedural law, he should not delve into them. A person wants to get a clearly stated court decision, which would be based on the law, made taking into account all the circumstances of the case and with equality of the parties, that is, would meet the minimum standards of justice. And the standard of justice is maintained through the following parameters and mechanisms:

Independence and impartiality of the court. Ensuring equality of parties in the process of court hearings. What are we confronted with as lawyers when we represent the interests of people, and – the prosecution interests of state institutions? Lawyers submit documents testifying to the innocence of their client, the court accepts or rejects them, but often simply file documents, but does not give them an assessment, although by law – is obliged to do so. The decision does not even mention that the evidence of one of the parties was submitted. Very often we see that the judge simply takes the indictment, which was written by the investigator, the prosecutor and simply rewrites it.

The possibility of appealing the decision. When we go to a higher instance and say that the first instance judge did not evaluate the evidence presented, the second instance judge, already the board, does not consider in its decision why the first instance judge did not take the evidence into account. The Supreme Court – (cassation) no longer considers the merits of the case, does not evaluate the evidence submitted but considers violations in the course of the case. Thus, the party does not have a real opportunity to appeal the court decision.

The quality of expertise, the basis of court decisions. Another important component is the quality of expertise. Often the judge says: “I will not take into account the conclusion of an independent examination, only the state expert service.” And if on the other side the public interest? Will the examination be independent?

Professionalism and independence of judges.

I am opposed to the revolutionary renewal of judges on the basis of loyalty. As a result of this approach, in 2010 many independent judges were suspended from work. If, as a result of such a change, more competent judges came to the system, no one would have expressed outrage. But in my practice, there were lawsuits that took place in 20 minutes without a contest, without a debate.

To ensure the principle of independence, judges are required by law to report to the Council of Judges of a particular pressure. But is there at least one statement from the judges?

It is necessary that the judges, but even more politicians were interested in an independent judiciary. After all, they (the politicians) put pressure on the judges. And until there is political motivation, the system will generate shadow curators.

Transparency of the judicial system.

The judicial system should be controlled by society according to tangible and understandable criteria. On the initiative of the Supreme Court of the Kyrgyz Republic and the efforts of the donor community, the site act.sot.kg was launched, where court decisions are published. The legislator regulates the obligation to publish the decisions of the judge within 10 days. But when we began to analyze the decisions of the court in defamation cases, we did not find a single decision on high-profile trials. This indicates either selective filling of the site or the complete lack of control over this process by the Supreme Court.

It is necessary to follow the publication of court decisions, to take disciplinary measures against those judges who do not publish decisions in open access.

Control over the activities of judges.

In fact, the parliament, the presidential apparatus, and the ombudsman have a control mechanism. That’s right, no one has the right to interfere in the administration of justice, it is impossible to control the decision of a single judge in a separate case.

But it is possible and necessary to analyze and control the judicial system through an analysis of the activities of the Council of Judges, the Disciplinary Commission, the Council for the Selection of Judges; these bodies should monitor the quality of the administration of justice.

After all, the three main functions of a good leader are a high-quality personnel policy, strategy, planning, and control of execution. There will be no control, there will be no responsibility, and therefore there will be no result.

[This content was automatically translated from Russian language]

Kyrgyz Entrepreneurs Learned the Basics of Commercial Mediation

Kyrgyz Entrepreneurs Learned the Basics of Commercial Mediation

The five-day basic course on commercial mediation was held in Bishkek from September 17 to 21 under the project of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and the International Development Law Organization (IDLO) “Commercial mediation in the Kyrgyz Republic”.

Dilbara Maksimbekova, IDLO Judicial Reform Advisor, says, the specificity of this course is the training of commercial mediation of representatives of the business environment.

“At the beginning of the year, when we launched a series of Basic Courses on Mediation, we were approached by entrepreneurs with a request to organize a separate course on commercial mediation for them. The businessmen wanted to know what possibilities the meditation opens up, how the procedure itself is carried out, what is its effectiveness? Therefore, in May of this year, we invited an experienced coach from Rome, Lubomir Petruleskova, and conducted introductory training for businessmen and bankers. We saw that businessmen are not only interested in the alternative resolution of disputes, moreover, but they themselves also want to mediate. And this is justified: who knows the problems of business better than they do? We decided to support the initiative and invited an international trainer from Minsk Liliya Vlasova to conduct a special course on commercial mediation for business representatives, ”said Dilbara Maksimbekova.

The President of the Association of Suppliers, Manufacturers and Distributors Gulnara Uskenbayeva, who received the certificate of a mediator, believes that the mediation of disputes can be one of the sought-after extrajudicial procedures.

“As a rule, disputes in business are resolved in the process of negotiations or in court. But in court cases are considered for a long time, and waiting for a business is too expensive. The negotiation process may also come to a standstill. And mediation – the presence of a neutral party can qualitatively affect the negotiation process. I saw a great perspective in mediation, ”said Uskenbayeva.

[This content was automatically translated from the Russian language]

Dastan Bekeshev and Kurmankul Zulushev: On Responsibilities for the Judicial Reform

Dastan Bekeshev and Kurmankul Zulushev: On Responsibilities for the Judicial Reform

On June 6, at a meeting of the parliament, members of the Jogorku Kenesh expressed a number of critical comments on the work of judges. But the responsibility for the quality of the judicial system in one way or another is borne by all branches of government. After all, formally the chairman of the Supreme Court does not have the authority to influence the work of the Council for the selection of judges or the Disciplinary Commission, since they were conceived as independent bodies and their compositions were formed with the participation of the deputies themselves, the president and the Council of Judges.

How to separate the powers and responsibilities of the parties? Members of Parliament Kurmankul Zulushev (“Republic – Ata Zhurt”) and Dastan Bekeshev (SDPK) share their visions.

Kurmankul Zulushev

The quality of court decisions depends on the judges themselves, who must administer justice within the law.

But in such matters the powers of the chairman of the Supreme Court are limited, for example, the chairman has no right to control either the Council for the Selection of Judges or the Disciplinary Commission.

I believe that the procedure for selecting members of the Disciplinary Commission should be changed, and the judges themselves should be represented there.

In addition, the Chairman of the Supreme Court is elected for a term of 3 years. This is too short a period. We need to give 4-8 or 5-10 years so that there is time for the implementation of judicial reform and the solution of personnel issues.

We must create the conditions under which the head of the Supreme Court would decide strategic issues.

At the same time, it must be remembered that the role of the chairman in matters of self-government is very great, as is his responsibility.

Dastan Bekeshev

No matter how we change the composition of the Council for the selection of judges, the quality of the work of elected judges will not change. We are all people, those whom we select can make mistakes, those whom the Council selects can make mistakes, regardless of whether the parliament or civil society does this selection.

The problem is not who we select, but how the selected judges then administer justice. It is necessary that they exercise justice within certain limits, and that they do not have too much scope for action. Meetings should, in general, be held in open mode, including with audio and video fixation. An online system for receiving complaints and evidence should work, but all this requires funds.

Another problem in corruption, which occurs due to inadequate funding of the judicial system. Whatever ideal person we choose, if he receives 15 thousand soms, and to consider the case for 15 million dollars, there is certainly a risk that he will be tempted.

[This content was automatically translated from the Russian language]

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