Evidential Significance of the Results of Operational Search Activities at the Stage of Criminal Case Initiation According to Russian Criminal Procedure Legislation

DOI

10.2991/aebmr.k.200312.475How to use a DOI?

Abstract

The article deals with studying the problematic issues related to the assessment of the evidential significance of the results of operational search activities obtained prior to the criminal case initiation and the admissibility of their use in criminal procedure evidence at the subsequent stages of the criminal proceedings. The exceptional evidentiary value of the operational search information is substantiated for those cases when it is obtained during the preparation or at the time of committing a crime, and cannot be obtained or replaced by a procedural means as part of the preliminary crime investigation. The author comes to the conclusion that in order to establish sufficient evidence of a crime (the ground for criminal case initiation under Article 141 of the Russian Federation Code of Criminal Procedure), the results of operational search activities can be used directly (i.e. without necessary transformations and giving the information received the status of evidence through duplicate investigative and procedural actions) by a legal person endowed with the right to initiate a criminal case. At the same time, in order to legally use the information obtained in the criminal procedural evidence at the subsequent stages of the criminal proceedings, they must be enshrined in the procedure. Based on the analysis of judicial practices of the Russian courts, the position of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation as well as the practices of the European Court of Human Rights on the problem of the scientific research, the causes and consequences of violations committed by law-enforcement officers carrying out operational search activities when checking reports of crimes are analyzed. The author argues that a problem of a possible ‘police entrapment’ remains unsolved and substantiates the fact that there is no comprehensive legislative approach to the criminal procedure regulation, form and conditions for using the results of operational search information at the pre-trial stage and, as a result, the lack of coordinated application of the norms of the Federal Law On Operational Search activities and the Code of Criminal Procedure of the Russian Federation.

Copyright

© 2020, the Authors. Published by Atlantis Press.

Open Access

This is an open access article distributed under the CC BY-NC license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/).

Download article (PDF)

TY  - CONF
AU  - Y P Ryapolova
PY  - 2020
DA  - 2020/03/17
TI  - Evidential Significance of the Results of Operational Search Activities at the Stage of Criminal Case Initiation According to Russian Criminal Procedure Legislation
BT  - Proceedings of the International Scientific Conference "Far East Con" (ISCFEC 2020)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 3292
EP  - 3296
SN  - 2352-5428
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/aebmr.k.200312.475
DO  - 10.2991/aebmr.k.200312.475
ID  - Ryapolova2020
ER  -