Reasons and grounds for instituting criminal proceedings are determined by law. The beginning of the investigation stage is tied to the moment of receiving the report of the crime or the discovery by the authorized bodies of its signs in the act of the subject. It can be both oral and written statements of citizens and officials. However, before starting an investigation, all received communications should be thoroughly examined. This is necessary to establish the reliability of the information, to prevent perjury. Let us further consider in detail the grounds and procedure for initiating a criminal case.
Terminology
In the legal literature, the reasons and grounds for initiating a criminal case are defined differently. Most experts understand the sources of information about the crime. Some processors additionally call the grounds for initiating a criminal case facts or factual and legal prerequisites for the start of proceedings. There is another opinion. A number of experts consider the grounds for initiating a criminal case to be facts of receipt (detection, acceptance, receipt) by the competent inquiry bodies, investigators, prosecutors of information about the crime.
Appeals of the population
Any person has the right to send a message about the crime (both being prepared and committed) to the police department. For example, an entity may file a fraud report with the police. A sample of such treatment does not have any form of legislation. However, mandatory details must be present in it. In particular, this is the name of the structure to which the message is sent, as well as the data of the applicant. The appeal must be signed by the person who made it.
Protocol
Messages are received that are not received in writing. For example, an entity filed an oral fraud statement with the police. A sample protocol is filled in accordance with the requirements of Art. 110 Code of Criminal Procedure. The protocol consists of an introductory, descriptive and final part. In the first section, you must specify:
- Time and place of receipt of the message.
- F. I. O., the position of the employee who accepted the appeal. In this case, the police officer refers to Art. 110 Code of Criminal Procedure.
- Key data of the applicant. In particular, his F. I. O., date and place of birth, education, occupation, criminal record, contact details for communication are indicated.
The official is obliged to explain to the applicant, against signature, the responsibility for providing knowingly false information. It is provided for by Art. 306. The narrative contains the essence of the message. Upon receipt of information about the crime, the police officer is obliged to find out all the data that will be important for the subsequent movement of the application. In this case, the circumstances established by Art. 68 Code of Criminal Procedure. A detailed clarification of information that is essential for further procedural actions not only significantly facilitates the subsequent investigation, but also prevents the applicant from being called again. The final part should reflect the information about the subject familiarizing himself with the protocol personally or through representatives, the correctness of the entries, as well as the absence or presence of comments on the content. The document must be signed by the police officer who compiled it and the person with whose words the information was recorded.
Public involvement
The basis for initiating a criminal case is the report of the trade union organization, the representative of the people's squad for the protection of order and other non-governmental organizations. In this case, one of the forms of public involvement in the fight against crime is being implemented. At the same time, it is necessary to understand the differences between this basis for initiating a criminal case from the messages of random groups of subjects. In the latter case, the police officers deal with the so-called collective complaints. A number of experts analyzing paragraph 2 of Part 1 of Art. 108 of the CPC, notes one dubious point that this article contains. The grounds for initiating a criminal case will be legitimate only if they are received from organizations registered in the Ministry of Justice. In this regard, according to experts, this reservation should be included in the norm.
Appeals of organizations, institutions, officials
They act as grounds for initiating criminal proceedings, provided that they are filed in writing. The message must contain the required details and the most complete information about the crime. Government decrees and departmental acts establish an obligation for heads of organizations and enterprises to report facts of unlawful acts. For example, medical facilities should immediately send an application for the delivery of citizens with bodily harm to them if there are suggestions that they were obtained by force.
Publications in print
They also act as grounds for initiating criminal proceedings. Publication refers to the placement in regional, central or local print media, produced by printing and other equivalent methods, notes, letters, and other materials containing information about the crime. Authors of publications can be any physical person, including those who are in the civil service. The basis for initiating a criminal case is also the posted material collected during the journalistic investigation. It follows from the meaning of these provisions that only notes published in registered publications are subject to review.
Important point
When initiating a criminal case under an article or note posted in a print publication, it is necessary to take into account a number of nuances. In order to give procedural force to the message, the investigator, whose authority is to identify the circumstances of the crime referred to in the publication, must proceed as follows. He cuts out the note itself, as well as the name and number of the publication, information about the publisher. All this is pasted onto a piece of paper and signed by an authorized employee.
Voluntary surrender
An entity that has committed unlawful actions may report this personally to an authorized ATS officer. That is, he himself declares his actions. This circumstance distinguishes this message from appeals of persons in which they speak of illegal acts of other entities. A confession must be executed in accordance with the provisions of Art. 111 Code of Criminal Procedure. An authorized employee receiving a message from a subject about a crime committed by him is obliged to establish his identity according to the documents presented to them. In addition, it turns out all the circumstances in which the subject decided to contact the ATS. The official is obliged to identify all facts of the prepared or already committed act with maximum detail. If necessary, the applicant may be asked to depict plans or schemes. Upon receipt of such messages in all cases it is necessary to find out the motives. It should be said that at the same time, the subject is not warned of responsibility for false testimony (Article 306 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. The grounds for initiating a criminal case are recorded in the protocol. Its execution is carried out according to the same rules that are provided for recording oral appeals.
Detection of signs of acts by officials
The investigator, interrogating officer or prosecutor can independently identify data indicating a crime in the course of their exercise of their authority, regardless of anyone else's reports. Detection of facts of unlawful acts may take place during general and special supervision, during the investigation, during the execution of operational-search measures. It should be noted that the signs of crimes do not mean their criminal legal characteristics, but real traces, materials, data indicating the commission of the act.
Specificity
The list of grounds established by law is considered closed. This means that no other data sources can justify the start of the investigation. Accordingly, anonymous appeals, messages in which the author is not indicated or which are composed on behalf of fictional subjects or persons who existed realistically but did not write them, do not have procedural force. Meanwhile, if the verification confirms their reliability, the basis for starting production will be the direct detection of the facts of an unlawful act. It is on legality that the public activity of the police officers is based.
Data sufficiency
At the same time, none of the abovementioned reasons automatically entails the initiation of proceedings. This is due to the fact that the materials received must contain enough data indicating signs of a crime. This position is secured by Art. 108 Code of Criminal Procedure. Sufficient data are a set of traces identified by procedural or operational-search means, testifying to individual components of the crime. Most often, they indicate the object and the objective part, less often - the subjective.
Information uncertainty
If the employee who received the message cannot make a procedural decision regarding the start of production or refusal to do so, he should use the provisions of Art. 109 Code of Criminal Procedure. In accordance with this norm, the verification of the grounds for initiating a criminal case is carried out. Its purpose is to identify reliable facts that indicate signs of a crime. All necessary measures should be completed, therefore, immediately after the discovery of relevant information (traces). Verification should not last more than three days from the date of receipt of the message. In exceptional cases, its duration can be increased to 10 days.
Methods used
Checking the messages for the presence in them of grounds for starting an investigation is carried out by:
- Requirements for the necessary materials in the form of documents and objects.
- Obtaining an explanation.
- Inspection of the place where the crime was allegedly committed.
- Production of inventories, audits and other documentary checks.
- Perform operational investigative actions.
- Carrying out control measurements, purchases, etc.
Limitations
The provisions of the rules categorically prohibit any actions of an investigative nature before initiating proceedings (that is, as part of an audit). Such an order allows us to maintain the distinction between the procedural stages. As an exception to this requirement, only an inspection of the place where the crime was allegedly committed or was being prepared was performed. Legal publications express the opinion that some investigative actions can be considered permissible until the initiation of proceedings, if they are carried out directly to verify the information received. For example, practitioners are focused on the possibility of detaining a suspect before the investigation. Presentation for identification, forensic examination and a number of other events are also considered acceptable. Meanwhile, these assumptions contradict the legislation in force in Russia. Moreover, they do not correspond to the moral foundations of the life and work of a democratic society and the functioning of the state with a legal structure. Allowing the production of certain investigative measures before the start of the investigation will mean the possibility of applying procedural coercive measures, restricting rights and infringing upon the interests of the subjects, despite the fact that it is not known for certain whether a crime was committed. In the case of the implementation of these assumptions, there may be an unreasonable extension of the authority of the police officers to apply methods of a repressive nature.
Making a procedural decision
Verification of the received message should show either the presence or absence of grounds for initiating proceedings. In both cases, an appropriate decision is made. In the first case, it serves as the basis for attracting the subject as a suspect, as well as for applying procedural measures to him (arrest, etc.). The decision to refuse to initiate an investigation must be motivated. It must be said that the legislation provides for the possibility of entities to appeal these documents.
Conclusion
Thus, the grounds for initiating a case under the Criminal Code can be only the reason that is expressly provided for in the Code of Criminal Procedure. No other messages may be equated with them. Employees accepting applications are required to complete and register them. In case of oral treatment of the subject, a protocol is drawn up. In this case, each message must pass verification. As a rule, it is carried out in all cases, except for detecting signs of a crime directly by officers of the police department or prosecutor's office. Validation is limited in time. In this regard, the employees performing it must as quickly as possible, but carefully examine all the information they have. Moreover, the law does not allow the implementation of investigative actions, except for the inspection of the alleged scene of the incident. In carrying out their duties, police officers must comply with the rule of law, both constitutional and procedural.