Peculiarities of pre-trial proceedings in criminal cases in which the pre-trial agreement on cooperation has been reached

Practice shows that the prosecutor's plea for the pre-trail cooperation agreement shall include two basic provisions that are required to provide the basis, or show the absence of such, for the special procedure of criminal case review and sentencing under Article 317.7 of the Criminal Procedure Code of the Russian Federation. These provisions include: the admission of guilt by the accused who has concluded the pre-trial agreement on cooperation (plea-bargaining) and the confirmation of the compliance of the accused with the obligations according to the pre-trial agreement on cooperation in the preliminary investigation, including assistance in the investigation of the crime, exposing and prosecuting other accomplices in the crime and the search of property obtained by crime. It also seems appropriate to change the name of the order issued by the prosecutor. The term "representation" should be replaced by "resolution" because, according to the existing national tradition of prosecutorial activities, representation is an act of prosecutorial supervision aimed at the elimination of violations of the law. In its turn, the resolution is a procedural decision taken by the prosecutor in the proceedings for a particular criminal case. In this regard, in case of confirmation of the indictment in a criminal case after a preliminary investigation, the prosecutor is obliged to make the resolution referred to as the resolution on the special order of court hearing and adjudication of the criminal case for the accused that has entered into the pre-trial agreement on cooperation. Our suggestions for improving the rules governing the institute of pre-trial cooperation agreements entail a change to Part 4 of Article 317.4 of the Criminal Procedure Code of the Russian Federation, namely: "After the preliminary investigation the criminal case according to the procedure established by Article 220 of this Code, is sent to the prosecutor for the confirmation of the indictment and the ruling of the special order of the court hearing and adjudication of the criminal case against the accused who has concluded a pre-trial agreement on cooperation".

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