Increased fines for contempt and failure to appear in court: Rada adopts draft law as a basis

The Verkhovna Rada has adopted as a basis a draft law on toughening the punishment of citizens for contempt and failure to appear in court. This was reported by UNN with reference to MP Yaroslav Zheleznyak and the bill card No. 11387.

Details

No. 11387 - The Code of Administrative Offenses increases penalties for contempt of court and introduces administrative liability for failure to comply with a court order to appear. For the basis of 262

According to the draft law, contempt of court or the Constitutional Court of Ukraine, which is expressed in malicious evasion of a witness, victim, plaintiff, defendant, or actions that show a clear disregard for the court or the rules established in court, is punishable by a fine of UAH 1700 to UAH 3400. Currently, such a fine ranges from UAH 850 to UAH 2,550.

For a repeated violation, the fine ranged from UAH 3,400 to UAH 6,800. Currently, the fine is between UAH 850 and UAH 4,250.

For disrespect for the Constitutional Court on the part of participants in constitutional proceedings, interpreters, witnesses, specialists, experts, which was expressed in malicious evasion of attendance at a hearing. Currently, such an offense is punishable by a fine of UAH 340 to UAH 1,700. Instead, it is proposed to set the penalty at the level of UAH 3400 to 6800.

It is also proposed to introduce administrative liability for failure to take action on a court order to bring a witness.

Thus, leaving an official without consideration of a court order for a subpoena, unreasonable failure to comply with a court order for a subpoena by a person who is responsible for its execution, or returning a subpoena to the court without a written explanation of the reasons for its non-execution will be punishable by a fine of UAH 1700 to UAH 3400.

In addition, it is planned to change the amount of fines if a suspect, accused, witness, victim, civil defendant fails to appear without good reason or fails to report the reasons for his or her failure to appear in court. The fines are to be set in the amount of:

• from 0.5 to 1 size of the subsistence minimum for able-bodied persons - in case of failure to appear at the call of the investigator or prosecutor;
• from 1 to 4 times the subsistence minimum for able-bodied persons - in case of failure to appear at the summons of the investigating judge or court.
  

Given that as of January 1, the subsistence minimum in Ukraine is UAH 3,028, the fine for failure to appear at the summons of an investigator or prosecutor will range from UAH 1,514 to UAH 3,028.

Failure to appear at the summons of an investigating judge or court will result in a fine of UAH 3028 to UAH 12112.

Recall

The Verkhovna Rada has adopted as a basis a draft lawthat plans to transfer to the Kyiv District Administrative Court and other administrative courts of Ukraine the cases that have not been considered by the Kyiv District Administrative Court. The cases will be transferred before the Kyiv City District Administrative Court starts its work.