Interfax: Unlawful arrests become common when prosecutors lose oversight functions – Prosecutor

MOSCOW. Nov 19 (Interfax) – The dominant role of Investigators in criminal prosecution leads to numerous unfounded arrests, said Russian Prosecutor General Yury Chaika.

“The law enforcement mechanism is apparently misbalanced, given that prosecutors have lost some of their oversight functions. Paradoxically, the prosecutor’s powers to ensure one of the most constitutional guarantees – the right to freedom and personal immunity – is limited,” Chaika told the Federation Council on Monday.

The investigator “dominates” in deciding whether a suspected should be taken into custody, he said.

“We witness hundreds of examples when the court orders a suspect’s arrest in defiance of the prosecutor’s position. More than a thousand instances of this kind have occurred since 2008,” Chaika said.

“Not infrequently, innocent people are prosecuted for various reasons, including the suspects’ unlawful prison confinement,” he said.

“The year 2012 and the first half of 2013 alone saw almost 2,400 illegal detentions of suspects, who subsequently gained the right to rehabilitation. However, no one has been held accountable to that as a rule,” the prosecutor general said.