The draft of the Criminal-Procedural Code

The appeal of advocates Viktor Ageev and Andrey Fedur on the draft of the Criminal-Procedural Code:

We welcome the decision of the Supreme Rada to stop the consideration of the draft of the Criminal-Procedural Code (CPC) prepared by the group headed by Gennadiy Vasilyev.

We want to state with satisfaction that the protests of lawyers, public organizations and the progressive part of MPs against the adoption of this draft were successful this time.

At that, it is obvious that the reform of the criminal-procedural legislation of Ukraine is necessary.

We want to point out once more that the future adoption of the new CPC must not be founded on the anti-democratic draft proposed by Gennadiy Vasilyev’s group, and that this draft cannot be improved by introducing the amendments into it. Ukraine needs the CPC created on the absolutely different basis.

At the same time, it is known that on 2 October 2003 G. Vasilyev and his associates will try again to present their “draft” for the consideration by the Supreme Rada. In our opinion, it is inadmissible to permit G. Vasilyev and the persons like him to take part in the development of the draft of the new CPC. It is also inadmissible for the juridical community to ignore the process of reforming the criminal-procedural legislation of Ukraine.

We hope that the story with the draft of the CPC will be a good lesson and will prevent in future the adoption of law drafts without the thorough consideration.

Advocates Viktor Ageev and Andrey Fedur

22 September 2003

“PL” remark: Parliament refused to discuss the draft of the Criminal-Procedural Code and sent the draft for remaking.