Martin Zarbabyan's commentary in Advokatskaya Gazeta
The Ministry of Justice of Russia has submitted for public discussion a draft order on amendments to the Internal Regulations of pre-trial detention facilities of the correctional institutions and correctional centers of the penal system, approved by order of the Ministry of Justice of Russia dated July 4, 2022 No. 110. The purpose of the changes is to ensure the rights and legitimate interests of suspects, accused and persons sentenced to imprisonment and forced labor.
Martin Zarbabyan, Counsel. Attorney of White Collar Defense & Investigations Practice at Infralex, assesses the innovations regarding the rights of suspects, accused and convicted persons positively, since humane treatment of a person should not depend on the facts of criminal prosecution or conviction. The draft shows the intention of the legislator to provide for important attributes of the daily life of convicts and to unify certain aspects of their conditions of detention.
"The changes can be called comprehensive, since they are aimed not only at improving the conditions of detention of citizens in such institutions, but also at clarifying the rights and obligations of suspects, accused persons in custody, as well as convicts serving sentences. In any case, these changes, in my opinion, are unlikely to have a significant impact on judicial practice, since they are more of a concretizing and corrective orientation of legal relations of accused (suspects) or convicts and the administration of the penal institution," Martin concluded.