DECISIONS OF PROSECUTOR ON STATEMENTS AND MESSAGES ABOUT CRIMES AND MISCONDUCT IN THE RUSSIAN EMPIRE FOR JUDICIAL REFORM OF 1864

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DECISIONS OF PROSECUTOR ON STATEMENTS AND MESSAGES ABOUT CRIMES AND MISCONDUCT IN THE RUSSIAN EMPIRE FOR JUDICIAL REFORM OF 1864

Journal Title: Правовий часопис Донбасу - Year 2016, Vol 56, Issue 2

Abstract

In accordance with the Charter of criminal judicial proceedings of 1864 in the Prosecutor's office concentrated information about crimes and misconducts, which could be the reason for the preliminary investigation. The police and the gendarmerie were obliged to inform Prosecutor's office about all the incidents, which contained signs of a crime or misconduct. Furthermore information about such incidents were reported to the Prosecutor's office from the institutions and officials of other agencies, as well as from individuals. Agencies and officials sent to the Prosecutor's office message, while individuals – statements. The victims' statements were called complaints. The statement of the eyewitness to the crime could be sufficient reason to start the investigation, even if there were no other evidence. The complaint was also considered to be a sufficient reason for beginning the investigation. The law obliged the prosecutors to take statements and complaints at any time. They could be written or verbal. If the statement or complaint was contained clear someone accusation of a crime or misconduct, the applicant was warned about the punishment "for false denunciations". The order of the Minister of justice for ranks of the Prosecutor's supervision in 1896 by adjusting the order of action for criminal prosecution, provided that after admission to the Prosecutor's office statement or "papers" that could serve as a pretext for criminal prosecution (for example, messages from the institution or officials, the complaint of the victim, statements by a private person, etc.), the Prosecutor had to solve them directly without the transmission for the decision of the judicial investigator. Check by the Prosecutor of the statements and messages were restricted to the survey of the applicant; the law did not provide other means of checking. The applicant and the complainant was found out circumstances of incident and the known signs of a criminal act. These readings must be entered into the protocol, in which must be also entered information about the time of filing and content of statement or complaint. False testimony involved the responsibility. And the Order of the Minister of justice of 1896 noted that by results of consideration of received statements, complaints and messages about crimes or misconduct with regard to the "degree of legality and sufficiency of grounds for criminal prosecution" as well as other circumstances of the case, the Prosecutor had to be one of statutory solutions: 1) in doubtful cases, to initiate a police inquiry; 2) to offer the investigator to conduct a preliminary investigation; 3) to make to the district court an indictment without conducting a preliminary investigation; 4) to leave a statement or message without consequences; 5) in particularly exceptional cases, to submit materials at the discretion of the superior Prosecutor. The second and the third solution were ways of initiation by the Prosecutor of criminal prosecution. In addition, in establishing the fact that the criminal act is not among those that the Prosecutor has the right to prosecute, he could take one of three decisions: 1) to invite the applicant to address in the authorized body; 2) to send the received information to the authorized person to initiate criminal prosecution or 3) to leave the obtained information without consequences.

Authors and Affiliations

Vasyl Gorbachev

Keywords

EP ID EP294067
DOI -
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