Procedural deadlines in criminal proceedings are fixed in Chapter 17 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CPC) of the Russian Federation. Their meaning is that for any action necessary for the investigation, for transferring materials to the court and making a decision at the meeting, time is required. But the legislator also limits authorized entities. To ensure that the process of solving a crime was not delayed, criminal procedural deadlines were provided.
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Types of procedural deadlines
The Code of Criminal Procedure in the Russian Federation considers procedural deadlines exclusively from the perspective of their application. The law does not define what concepts or types are provided. There is only a presentation of the order of calculation, observance and restoration of time periods. In criminal proceedings, it is only conditionally possible to derive the principle of gradation of the time periods under consideration.
The procedural terms of the Code of Criminal Procedure of the Russian Federation and the conditions for their application, according to the articles of Chapter 17, are mandatory for compliance, and their violation leads to the suspension of the investigation.
There is a table for the gradation of procedural deadlines in criminal proceedings.
- Preliminary stage of crime detection. This can include several periods of time. Firstly, the verification of materials, which is carried out before the initiation of a case. Three days, ten and thirty days are given for it. These periods of time are necessary to carry out a full assessment of the case. This applies to both the inquiry and the investigation. Secondly, solving the crime. Two months are provided for the investigation, thirty days for the inquiry. However, extensions are also permitted, so the investigation may last much longer.
- Decision making by the prosecutor. Based on the results of the investigation, a resolution or conclusion of an indictment is sent to the prosecutor. The case must be sent to court, returned to the investigator for further work, or sent to a higher prosecutor. The consideration of the charges must be carried out within ten days. It is possible to extend this period to thirty days if the case is of increased complexity and requires a more thorough inspection. However, if we are talking about an inquiry, then only two days are given to make a decision.
- Keeping a person in custody. The suspect must be detained for no more than two months. However, there is also an extension scheme. If the case requires additional measures, the court may increase the specified period to four months, six months, and so on, but not more than eighteen months. In addition, only a person accused of a serious act can spend more than a year in custody. It is important to understand that this type must be calculated from the moment of actual arrest, and not from the moment the court makes a decision.
According to the Code of Criminal Procedure, such terms apply simultaneously, since all stages of the investigation overlap with each other. They should not be confused with the periods of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, which include prescription.
Reasonable time limit in criminal proceedings
The concept of “reasonable time” refers to criminal proceedings in general and is one of its principles. The reasonableness of the deadlines by virtue of Art. 6.1 of the Code of Criminal Procedure of the Russian Federation is determined taking into account a number of factors:
- the level of complexity of the criminal case - both legal and factual;
- characteristics of the behavior of the participants in the process;
- the effectiveness of the actions of the prosecution and the court aimed at ensuring a timely decision on the case;
- the total duration of the investigation and judicial consideration of the case.
The right to justice within a reasonable time is provided for both those under criminal prosecution and those who have suffered from their actions.
In this case, the victim does not lose this right even if the person who committed the crime has not been identified. So, in accordance with Part 3.1 of Art. 6.1 of the Code of Criminal Procedure of the Russian Federation, the category of reasonableness of terms applies, among other things, to the period of pre-trial proceedings - the period calculated from the moment of filing an application until the suspension of the investigation due to the impossibility of identifying the person subject to criminal prosecution.
Moreover, from the point of view of the highest court, the right to trial within a reasonable time is retained by the victim even if he was not officially recognized as such. For example, in a situation where the initiation of a criminal case is refused due to the expiration of the statute of limitations. This conclusion was reached by the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation in its resolution No. 28-P dated November 11, 2014, made based on the results of checking the constitutionality of Part 3 of Art. 6.1 Code of Criminal Procedure of the Russian Federation.
Procedure for applying deadlines
The timing in the process presupposes the procedure for their application. What matters is how they will be calculated. Art. speaks about this. 128 Code of Criminal Procedure of the Russian Federation. There are general rules in this regard established by the code. According to Art. 128 of the Code of Criminal Procedure of the Russian Federation, for any stage of the investigation the starting and ending points are clearly indicated, which simplifies the work of the investigation and creates a number of guarantees for other participants in the case.
Determination of periods according to 128 Code of Criminal Procedure can be carried out in several ways.
- hours, which is more common in sanctions than procedural actions, but an example is the interrogation time, limited to four hours;
- calendar days, this form is often present when determining the period for checking the case materials and transferring it to the court, for which exactly one day is given;
- months – this period involves a long period of time for performing actions, for example, being in custody.
The latter option does not require taking into account such parameters as the hour and day of the start of the period.
Also, according to Art. 128, the periods provided for the detention or other types of isolation of a suspect include not only the working hours of detention facilities, but also every day off.
Separately, it is worth mentioning the appeal at the appellate stage, cassation, and so on. There are also deadlines for this. For example, to challenge a verdict, you are given ten days; when appealing to the cassation authority, the consideration of the appeal is carried out within one month. It also provides for filing complaints with prosecutors and other authorized persons under Art. 124 of the Code of Criminal Procedure of the Russian Federation, which also has a three-day period for consideration.
An important point is compliance with the deadlines that exist not only for the investigation, but also for the participants in the process sending complaints and petitions. Violation of the periods in question may lead to the annulment of the consequences arising from procedural measures. However, the legislator allows the missed time to be restored - if there is a good reason and by sending an application to the judicial authority.
Commentary on Article 128 of the Code of Criminal Procedure of the Russian Federation
1. A procedural period is a period of time established by the Code of Criminal Procedure during which procedural actions must be performed or during which one must refrain from performing these actions. Compliance with the deadline ensures the fulfillment of the tasks of the criminal process. “The right to a trial within a reasonable time” has the meaning of an international legal principle (Articles 9, 14 of the Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and Articles 5, 6 of the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms). Failure to comply with the deadline significantly violates the constitutional right of citizens to judicial protection (Article 46 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation) and may entail a sanction of nullity (recognition of decisions made as invalid and the evidence obtained as having no legal force (Part 3 of Article 7 of the Code of Criminal Procedure)), as well as the established legal responsibility of the participants in the process. Thus, for a gross or systematic violation of the procedural law by a judge, resulting in an unjustified violation of the deadlines for resolving the case and significantly infringing on the rights and legitimate interests of the participants in the trial, taking into account the specific circumstances, a disciplinary sanction may be imposed, up to and including termination of the powers of the judge <1>.
——————————— <1> See: paragraph 2 of the Resolution of the RF Supreme Court of December 27, 2007 N 52 “On the time limits for consideration by the courts of the Russian Federation of criminal, civil cases and cases of administrative offenses” // BVS. 2008. N 2.
2. Procedural periods are calculated in hours, days and months. If the law specifies years (part 3 of article 326, part 2 of article 398, part 5 of article 400, part 3 of article 414 of the Code of Criminal Procedure), then the rules on calculating time periods in months apply. If the law specifies a period such as “day,” then the period from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. local time is taken into account (Clause 21, Article 5). In some cases, the deadline - the period of time for performing (abstaining from performing) procedural actions - is established by indicating a certain event that must occur (for example, the preliminary investigation is suspended until the accused recovers - Article 211).
3. According to Part 1 of the commented article, the hour and day at which the period calculated in months begins is not included in this period. It seems that this rule does not apply to periods of detention, house arrest, or forced stay in a medical hospital. When calculating the term of detention, its beginning is considered to be “the moment of detention” (Part 9 of Article 109), i.e. the moment of actual deprivation of freedom of movement of the accused (suspect) - clause 15 of Art. 5.
4. The current criminal procedure law, in contrast to the Code of Criminal Procedure of the RSFSR, has changed the order in which the term begins to be calculated. “When calculating the period in months (emphasis mine - K.K.), the hour and day at which the period begins are not taken into account,” defines part 1 of the commented article. At first glance, this norm contains an unfortunate inaccuracy. There is a great temptation to simply not notice this difference and continue to do it the old way - not to take into account the current hour and the current day when calculating any deadlines. However, a broad interpretation of the new procedural norm (extending, by analogy, the rules for calculating time limits in months to calculating time limits in hours and days) can worsen the position of the individual and therefore is not always desirable when determining the actual procedural time limits. It seems that this problem should be solved as follows:
a) when calculating the period in hours, it is calculated from the beginning of the moment (minute) at which the legal fact occurred, entailing the passage of the period. For example, the moment of actual detention of the suspect took place at 12:45 p.m. Taking into account these 45 minutes, the period of detention should be calculated. “In case of detention, the period is calculated from the moment of actual detention,” the procedural law additionally emphasizes (Part 3 of Article 128). Judicial practice follows exactly this path (see the cassation ruling of the Investigative Committee according to the Criminal Code of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation dated December 22, 2005 in case No. 67-o05-90);
b) when calculating the period in days, the part of the day that follows the legal fact entailing the beginning of the period is taken into account. However, in this case, the law does not clearly resolve the issue of the end of the period, since according to Part 2 of Art. 128 of the Code of Criminal Procedure it expires at 24 hours of the last day. For example, in relation to a suspect under Art. 100 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, the preventive measure was applied at 11 a.m. on July 15. In this case, within 10 days from the date of application of the preventive measure, he must be charged. Within the meaning of Art. 128 the remaining part of the day, in which the period begins from the moment of detention, is taken into account, i.e. The 10-day period begins exactly at 11 a.m. on July 15. In other words, the day (July 15) should not be rounded to 24 hours. Then the 10-day period expires on July 25. at 11, not 24 hours. However, if you follow the instructions of Part 2 of Art. 128, the period, on the contrary, must expire on July 25, but not at 11, but at 24 hours (“a period calculated in days expires at 24 hours of the last day”). In practice, this means that those days during which the period begins are not taken into account and rounded to whole days. However, the legislator provided the said rule for the beginning of the day only for calculating the period in months (Part 1 of Article 128), and not in days. Therefore, there is a conflict between the two norms of this article. According to the well-known rule of interpretation of legal norms, in case of such doubts, the law is given a softer meaning (benignius leges interpret
Article 131 of the Code of Criminal Procedure of the Russian Federation. Procedural costs
- Procedural costs are expenses associated with criminal proceedings that are reimbursed from the federal budget or funds from participants in criminal proceedings.
- Procedural costs include: 1) amounts paid to the victim, witness, their legal representatives, expert, specialist, translator, witnesses, as well as a lawyer participating in a criminal case appointed by an inquirer, investigator or court, to cover the costs associated with appearing before place of conduct of procedural actions and accommodation (travel expenses, rental of living quarters and additional expenses associated with living outside the place of permanent residence (daily allowance); 2) amounts paid to those working and having a regular salary to the victim, witness, their legal representatives, witnesses in compensation for the wages they lost for the time spent by them in connection with the summons to the body of inquiry, to the investigator, prosecutor or to the court; 3) amounts paid to the victim, witness, and their legal representatives who do not have a regular salary, witnesses for distracting them from their usual activities; 4) remuneration paid to an expert, translator, specialist for the performance of their duties during criminal proceedings, with the exception of cases when these duties were performed by them as part of an official assignment; 5) amounts paid to a lawyer for the provision of legal assistance in the event of the lawyer’s participation in criminal proceedings by appointment; 6) amounts spent on storing and sending material evidence; 7) amounts spent on forensic examination in expert institutions; a monthly state benefit in the amount of five minimum wages, paid to an accused person temporarily suspended from office in the manner established by part one of Article 114 of this Code; 9) other expenses incurred during criminal proceedings and provided for by this Code.
- The amounts specified in part two of this article are paid by order of the inquirer, investigator, prosecutor or judge, or by court ruling.
- The procedure and amounts for reimbursement of procedural costs, with the exception of the amounts of procedural costs provided for in paragraphs 2 and 8 of part two of this article, are established by the Government of the Russian Federation.
