Prosecutor’s Office to check public control over SIZO

The State Duma approved the first-reading bill on introducing liability for obstructing public control in places of detention without objections. The document was introduced on 13 January by “United Russia” deputies Vasiliev, Krasheninnikov, Pligin, Popov, and Kolesnikov; today it was unanimously supported by 438 deputies, reports our correspondent Lev Fainberg.

The bill, as intended by the authors, is aimed at improving public control over the provision of human rights in places of detention. It establishes prosecutorial oversight over compliance with the law by public controllers. It establishes the procedure and conditions under which members of the public monitoring commission can conduct conversations with suspects or the accused, as well as administrative liability measures for officials for obstructing the exercise of public control, and for members of the public monitoring commission for violations of established requirements.

Deputy Chairman of the Security Committee Vladimir Kolesnikov presented the bill. Responding to Vera Lekareva’s question about the punishment following a prosecutorial check that revealed 77,000 violations in places of detention, the speaker admitted that he did not have such information.

Gennady Gudkov supported the bill, expressing a wish for it to be bolder and for us to have effective public control given the large number of violations in pre-trial detention centers (SIZO). Gudkov recalled that amendments were recently adopted prohibiting defenders from using audiovisual recording equipment in SIZO, which is very important for recording violations; this issue must also be resolved for public control.