In Ukraine, a system of "automatic" registration of criminal proceedings is effectively in place. Even in the absence of a crime, courts oblige law enforcement officers to open cases in favor of applicants. To prevent abuse and protect businesses, the head of the prosecutor's office proposes changes so that decisions on cases in the field of entrepreneurship are made exclusively by the heads of prosecutor's offices. This was stated by Prosecutor General of Ukraine Andriy Kostin during the Kyiv International Economic Forum, as reported by UNN.
According to Article 214 of the Criminal Procedure Code of Ukraine, almost automatic registration of criminal proceedings takes place in our country. Adhering to the requirements of Article 214, we - law enforcement agencies, prosecutors, investigators - are obliged to register... If we see that there is no crime there, we refuse. The applicant goes to court and the court obliges us... that is, makes a decision in favor of the applicant. Today, in my opinion, there is almost automatic registration of criminal proceedings.
He noted that he recently advocated for changing this procedure and, in particular, liquidating the Department of Criminal Law Policy and Investment Protection due to its non-functionality.
At the National Security and Defense Council, I proposed changes, in particular, to Article 214, in order to protect businesses... It is based on the fact that all articles concerning businesses... decisions are made only by the head of the prosecutor's office. I personally believe that I took on additional responsibility, showed initiative. This is an additional burden on prosecutors... I liquidated that department (Department of Criminal Law Policy and Investment Protection - ed.) that was under the leadership of Mr. Boniuk... because the department was a buffer for every prosecutor. I heard this from businesses and liquidated it.
According to Kravchenko, businesses complain to this Department and in response receive that this body can do nothing, because "they are not procedural leaders in those criminal proceedings where businesses complain."
I calculated that now we have 14-15 thousand criminal proceedings (regarding business - ed.) for the whole country. We will work out this figure, check it with expert examinations: something will be closed, something will be sent to court in accordance with the law, but this figure cannot be more than 5 thousand proceedings for the whole country.
If the legislator does not support it, businesses will know who is to blame.
Recall
The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Committee on Law Enforcement supported the draft law providing for amendments to the Criminal Procedure Code of Ukraine regarding the improvement of guarantees for the protection of economic entities during criminal proceedings (No. 12439). The Federation of Employers of Ukraine believes that thanks to these changes, businesses will receive additional guarantees — clear terms of arrests, appeal of the legalization of "urgent" searches.
Legislative novelties provide for changes to Article 214 of the Criminal Procedure Code, which defines the procedure for initiating pre-trial investigation. This refers, in particular, to the procedure for entering information into the ERDR regarding crimes under Article 191 of the Criminal Code and crimes in the field of economic activity; data on a criminal offense are now entered into the register only when there are sufficient grounds by the head of the prosecutor's office or his deputies. This limits the practice of opening cases for quantitative indicators, or on far-fetched grounds, believes the head of the FPU council Dmytro Oliynyk, who was present during the discussion of legislative changes at the meeting of the relevant VR committee.