A meeting of the Russia’s Investigative Committee board has taken place in Moscow to discuss procedural control over the terms of preliminary investigation and detention of the accused, and organization of investigation of crimes committed in the past years. The meeting presided over by Alexander Bastrykin was attended by personnel of the Investigative Committee Central Office and heads of a number of investigations directorates in the subjects of the Russian Federation.

Summarizing the state of procedural control over the terms of preliminary investigation and detention of the accused, Mr. Bastrykin pointed out a number of regions, where the number of criminal cases, investigated for over two months stipulated by the penal and procedural law, had risen. The Chairman stressed that over 6 months the number of criminal cases being investigated for over two months had gone up by 24%. Namely the meeting heard the reports by heads of investigations directorates in Pskov, Kaluga, Orenburg regions, the Tuva Republic and other regions. Mr. Bastrykin underscored that it was inadmissible to enlarge terms of preliminary investigation and detention for no good reason, as it abuses constitutional rights of citizens. Each person has a right for his report on a crime to be considered and for criminal proceedings to be carried out by the authorized state bodies and courts of justice within a decent period of time. After discussing this matter, additional organizational measures were taken to eliminate the revealed violations.

The meeting also heard the report on organization of solving and investigation of crimes committed in the past years. This area has been one of the priorities since the Investigative Committee was established. This way, as of 1 January 2008 over 208 thousand crimes in the jurisdiction of the Investigative Committee were unsolved, 94.5 thousand of them were murders. Thanks to continuous analysis of these cases carried out by specially arranged groups of investigators and criminologists of the Investigative Committee and the use of latest high-tech forensic equipment they have at their disposal, over 33.5 thousand such crimes have been solved over the period since 2008, more than 4 thousand of them are murders and more than a thousand rapes. Among them are a series of murders of women on sexual motivation in the town of Angarsk, Irkutsk Region, the similar series in Lipetsk Region, series of sexual abuses in of children in Saint-Petersburg, Tatarstan and some others. After discussing that matter the board took a number of measures to improve the quality and efficiency of investigation of past crimes.