The ascertainment of procedural liabilities and injunctions on the exercising of certain activity as a safeguard of restrictingthe freedom of conduct of state officials in criminal court procedure

The article states that our criminal-procedural legislation placesempowered officials under the duties restricting the freedom of their activity and promoting the solution of the tasks of criminalprocedure, aiming at ensuring the rights and freedoms of the parties to a criminal procedure and at regulating legal relations with otherempowered officials, conducting preliminary investigation and trial. In this connection much attention is paid to the wording of theprinciple of legality applied in criminal trials, providing that "court, procurator, investigator, inquiry agency and injurer can not apply afederal law, inconsistent with the present Code", whereas judging by the content of the Constitution of the Russian Federation, statebodies and officials are obliged to observe both the Constitution of the Russian Federation and laws. It is substantiated that being fixedin law the duty of an investigator, inquirer ex officio to take all measures provided by law for a comprehensive, complete and objectiveexamination of the circumstances of a case, ascertainment of all factual circumstances significant for the qualification of an act anddecision of a case in relation to a defendant would promote the realization of the purpose of criminal procedure. In order to insure boththe rights and legal interests of a person in criminal proceedings it is necessary to make the wording of the principle of presumption ofinnocence more precise by means of fixing the duty of state officials to treat a suspect (a defendant) as an innocent person. It isconcluded that the Criminal Procedural Code of the Russian Federation should provide a mechanism of performing the duties, includingthe order of performing the duties, the conditions of observing the rights and freedoms of persons under duty, ensuring their security andall possible consequences such as stimulating the performance of the duty and liability for its non-performance. The freedom to realizethe powers of officials in criminal procedure is restricted by the ascertainment of legal injunctions on exercising of certain activity andtaking decisions. The possibility to exercise control not only by the state bodies (courts, superior bodies, etc.), but also by the societyand a person who considers that his rights and legal interests were violated because of actions (or omission of an act) of officials canserve as a guarantee of performance of a legal duty in case of violation of a prohibition.

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