The draft law being developed by the Prosecutor General’s Office “On optimizing the criminal law with simultaneous correction of the Criminal Procedure and Penal Enforcement Codes” became the main subject of discussion at the Round Table held today at the Academy of Law Enforcement Agencies.
Among the participants: the Commissioner for Human Rights in Kazakhstan, representatives of the Supreme Court, law enforcement agencies, the Amanat Party and the Atamaken NPP, lawyers, as well as prominent scientists of Kazakhstan, Belarus, Russia and Uzbekistan.
The legal relations in question have a special social significance and directly affect one of the basic functions of the state – ensuring security and law and order. Largely due to this, any changes introduced have always caused a vivid controversy in society.
Noting the importance of the event, the Rector of the Academy Timur Suleimenov stressed that to carry out reforms in these areas without proper scientific and practical justification means taking unjustified risks, especially in the long term.
The bill presented by the developers provides for changes in both the material and procedural parts.Conditionally , there are 4 main directions of amendments:
— harmonization of sanctions taking into account the public danger of acts;
— optimization of the procedure for the appointment and execution of punishments;
—review of the status and powers of the participants in the process;
—reduction of bureaucracy and red tape.
The dialogue platform made it possible to consolidate the opinions of scientists, practicing lawyers, representatives of involved government agencies, public associations and human rights defenders.
A wide range of issues will be touched upon in the discussions. For example, many opinions have been expressed on the proportionality of the public danger of violations and punishment for them, the introduction of alternative measures of criminal legal influence (in fact, punishment) without court sentences, the transfer of powers to prosecutors to authorize a number of investigative and covert investigative actions.
The results of the Round Table will be summarized and sent as recommendations to the developers of the bill.
