Putin introduced a bill that regulates the conduct of searches of lawyers and their offices
Russian President Vladimir Putin submitted to the State Duma a draft law regulating the procedure for carrying out searches of lawyers, as well as clarifying the powers of the defenders. The corresponding document is available on the website of the lower house of Parliament, RBC reports.
According to the text of the bill, Putin's initiative involves introducing changes to the Criminal Procedure Code or CPC of the Russian Federation.
"The legal search of a lawyer’s property or premises could only be permitted by a court decision in which specific objects that are being searched for must be named, as well as the data that serves as the grounds for the search," the explanatory note says.
In addition, according to the bill, the seizure of a ''whole'' lawyer's dossier during a search will not be allowed, as well as making any "photographs, filming, video recordings and other types of recordings" of the dossier.
A proposal was also made to supplement the Criminal Procedure Code with the provision on the "duties of the preliminary investigation." According to this addition, the participation of the lawyer in investigative actions conducted at his request and the request of the suspect or the accused must be guaranteed.
Article 58 of the CPC, according to the bill, should be amended with a provision that says that the defense cannot be denied the right to invite an expert to participate in criminal proceedings in a way that would clarify issues "which are in the framework of his professional competence."
To remove formal barriers, the bill introduces new amendments stating that "the lawyer enters the criminal case, not permitted to participate" as it was before, and "has all the procedural rights from the moment of entry into the criminal case and not from the date of his admission.”
Previously, it was reported that on January 25, in the Crimea, the FSB detained Mykola Polozov, who is a lawyer of Akhtem Chiygoz and Ilmi Umerov. He was released the same day.
On January 26, law enforcement officers detained a lawyer named Emil Kurbedinov and conducted searches at his office and place of residence where the bar association is registered. After 10 days of detention, he was released from the pre-trial detention center in Simferopol.