About the inadmissibility of “pilot” charges in pre-trial proceedings in a criminal case

Abstract

It investigated the involvement of a person as an accused as an act of criminal prosecution, containing the position of the state prosecution in a criminal case, that is, a criminal-legal claim, which is the subject of an upcoming trial. It is concluded that, proceeding from the grounds provided for by law for attracting a person as an accused, taking into account the doctrinal positions, in accordance with which the accusation is the result of a full, comprehensive and objective investigation of the circumstances of the criminal case and presupposes practically the absolute conviction of the investigator in exposing a person of committing the crime incriminated to him, the author comes to the conclusion that this act of criminal prosecution, as a general rule, should close the main phase of the preliminary investigation, be the logical conclusion of a set of procedural actions aimed at establishing the circumstances included in the subject of proof , and be carried out in anticipation of the transfer of the materials of the criminal case for further consideration to the court. The author analyzes the reasons that predetermined the widespread spread of another, as it were, two-stage practice of pre-trial bringing a person to criminal responsibility, consisting in the issuance of the initial (“pilot”) and final charges. It has been determined that the need for movement and the presentation of a “pilot” accusation is currently associated only with the following from the meaning of Ch. 13 of the Code of Criminal Procedure of the Russian Federation, an absolutely unreasonable requirement that a person be in the status of an accused as a legal condition for choosing a preventive measure against him, which was a consequence of attempts made by the Soviet legislator to borrow a number of well-proven pre-revolutionary mechanisms and procedures without their proper adaptation to new at that time realities of criminal court proceedings.