Consideration of 11 thousand criminal proceedings suspended by courts due to mobilization of accused - media
This is reported by NGL.media, Censor.NET informs.
The possibility of suspending court proceedings due to mobilization is provided for in Article 335 of the CPC, which states that if the accused "was called up for military service during mobilization, for a special period, the court shall suspend the court proceedings against such accused [...] until discharge from military service".
The analysis of the stopped cases shows that they mainly involve theft, drugs, and serious road accidents. Many suspended cases relate to corruption crimes, such as misappropriation or embezzlement of property, bribery, abuse of office, etc.
NGL.media analyzed 400 randomly selected cases out of the entire body of cases suspended due to mobilization and found that about one hundred defendants (25%) in these cases committed the crimes charged to them already in the status of military personnel. Of the remaining cases, in 95% of cases, the courts terminated the proceedings after the accused were mobilized. In only 5% of cases did the court refuse to do so. It is important to emphasize that court decisions in such cases are not subject to appeal.
The few cases (less than 5%) when judges still refuse to suspend the case due to the mobilization of the accused is due to the fact that most judges do not investigate where the accused serves and whether he or she has the opportunity to participate in hearings remotely. In some of the cases analyzed by NGL.media, the dates of mobilization are not even indicated.
Judges interpret Art. 335 of the CPC as binding, without finding out whether the mobilized defendant is in the rear or in the combat zone. That is, the mere fact of service is sufficient.
Almost half of the 400 cases analyzed in detail by NGL.media relate to criminal proceedings initiated in 2010-2020. During the service of the accused, the statute of limitations continues to run, and therefore, it is likely that they may be released from criminal liability altogether because the statute of limitations has expired.
