Resumption of closed criminal proceedings: problematic issues

Abstract

The article deals with problematic issues related to the resumption by a prosecutor of criminal proceedings closed by the decision of an investigator. It is proved that the investigator's decision to close criminal proceedings can be appealed to the investigating judge or prosecutor within ten days of receiving a copy thereof. However, the prosecutor, to monitor the legality and validity of the investigator's decision, can independently reverse the decision to close the criminal proceedings. At the same time, an important point in this situation is that the legislation sets a time frame for the prosecutor, namely twenty days, from the moment he receives the decision from the investigator, during which he can check the decision to close the criminal proceedings for its legality and make a decide on its reversal. Attention is drawn to the fact that prosecutors do not always adhere to the specified twenty-day period and groundlessly reverse legal decisions to close criminal proceedings, referring to Part 6 of Article 36 of the Criminal Procedure Code of Ukraine, which defines the powers of the prosecutor to reverse illegal and unjustified decisions of investigators and subordinate prosecutors within the terms of pre-trial investigation. It is argued that the prosecutor's right to reverse an illegal and unjustified decision to close criminal proceedings is not included in the terms of pre-trial investigation because it is already outside it, and therefore if the prosecutor reverses the specified decision after the expiration of the twenty-day period, it is a violation of Part 6 of Article 284 of the Criminal Procedure Code of Ukraine. It is noted that to stop the repeated criminal prosecution of participants in criminal proceedings, it is advisable to appeal the prosecutor's decision to resume criminal proceedings to the court, even though that the current Criminal Procedure Code of Ukraine does not a relevant provision in this regard. It is proved that if the court satisfies the complaint and reverses the prosecutor's decision to cancel the decision to close the criminal proceedings, further implementation of the pre-trial investigation will be impossible and the resumed criminal proceedings will be closed. Proposals have been made to improve the criminal procedure legislation in terms of ensuring the right of participants in criminal proceedings to appeal in court against the prosecutor's decision to reverse the decision to close criminal proceedings. Keywords: criminal proceedings, prosecutor, pre-trial investigation, investigator, decision, court.