Annotation

A study of the statutory basis and law enforcement practice of criminal case proceedings as well as criminal intelligence and surveillance activities has given an opportunity to identify a set of problems, which negatively affect protection of rights of persons involved in the spheres of legal relations under consideration. These problems are reviewed from the standpoint of how they might be solved and are aimed at raising the guarantees of rights of persons who are the subject of criminal intelligence and surveillance activities or are being criminally prosecuted. In particular, the authors identify a conflict between the provisions of the Instruction on the Procedure for Provision of Deliverables of Criminal Intelligence and Surveillance Activities to an Interrogation Authority, Investigator, or Court (Clause 12) and the provisions of the criminal procedure law (Part 5, Art. 401.4, Part 4, Art. 412.3 of the Criminal Procedure Code of the Russian Federation and others) resulting in the limitation of the citizen's constitutional right to judicial protection. So, according to Clause 12 of the Instruction, in the event that authorized officials (authorities) are provided with deliverables of criminal intelligence and surveillance activities that limit human and civil constitutional rights to privacy of correspondence, telephone conversations, postal, telegraph and other messages transmitted via electrical and postal networks, as well as the right to inviolability of dwelling, copies of court judgments about carrying out of criminal intelligence and surveillance activities are attached to such deliverables (thus, the original of an interlocutory court judgment that is issued prior to criminal case initiation and enters into legal force upon execution by a judge is kept by the authority in charge of criminal intelligence and surveillance activities; however, interlocutory court judgments that have entered into legal force may be appealed only simultaneously with the final case judgment). At the same time, pursuant to the provisions of the criminal procedure law, appeal of court judgments requires attachment to the complaint of copies of such judgment certified by the respective court but it is impossible to obtain those in the case under consideration. The law enforcement practice shows that superior courts reject the complaints on the grounds that certified copies of other interlocutory court judgments are absent from the case files. Based on the results of studying the statutory basis of criminal intelligence and surveillance activities and criminal proceedings, including the practice of proceedings in criminal cases, the authors conclude that criminal case files have to have the original interlocutory court judgment that permits carrying out of criminal intelligence and surveillance activities, and the court has to certify and provide a copy thereof to interested parties for the purpose of filing a complaint to a superior court.