The relevant committee of the Verkhovna Rada supported amendments to the CPC to protect business

The Draft Law on Amendments to the CPC to Improve Guarantees of Protection of Business Entities in Criminal Proceedings is recommended to be adopted by the Parliament as a basis with further revision.

The respective decision was made by the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Law Enforcement at its meeting on February 19. In addition to MPs, the meeting was attended by the initiators of the project, representatives of the Prosecutor General's Office, the National Police, the National Bar Association of Ukraine, the judiciary and other experts.

As a reminder, draft law No. 12439 provides for:

• expanding the rights of the victim in criminal proceedings by enabling him or her to directly apply to the investigating judge for temporary access to things and documents, order and conduct examinations, etc;
• improving the rules for applying measures to ensure criminal proceedings;
• specifying the grounds for returning temporarily seized property;
• setting a time limit for the return of property after the seizure is canceled.

Vyacheslav Klimov, one of the co-authors of the draft law and a member of the Council for Support of Entrepreneurship under Martial Law (an advisory body to the President of Ukraine), described the document as extremely important for business and long overdue.

The Chairman of the UNBA Committee on Criminal Law and Procedure Anzhelika Moiseeva and a member of the Committee's Council Oleksandr Kudryavtsev supported the legislative initiative. At the same time, they drew attention to the fact that the draft contains a number of inconsistencies that could lead to significant problems in its practical application.

Among the shortcomings, they outlined the vague deadline for serving a motion to seize property, the inconsistency of the provisions of the proposed Article 156 with the current Article 132 of the CPC, the unjustified leaving of a motion for temporary access to things and documents without consideration, imperfect proposals for amendments to the articles relating to entering information into the URPTI, inspection of premises without the permission of the investigating judge, the right of the investigating judge to interrogate persons during the consideration of a motion for measures to ensure criminal proceedings.

The National Police also expressed some comments regarding the suspect's right to change the jurisdiction of criminal proceedings and to enter information into the URPTI, where there is a subjective factor.

Following the discussion, the relevant committee of the Verkhovna Rada unanimously voted to include the draft law on the agenda of the next session of the Verkhovna Rada, to adopt it as a basis with further revision for the second reading.