The final straight

Last spring, the President of PMR Vadim Krasnoselsky introduced a package of legislations to the Supreme Council called upon to return the former powers to the prosecutor's office. The agency overseeing the observance of the lawfulness of the body at the insistence of the former head of state was deprived in 2012. The purpose of the presidential legislations was to restore the balance of the law enforcement system, establishing a clear delimitation of the functions of prosecutorial supervision and preliminary investigation.

In the course of the plenary session of the Supreme Council, which took place on May 17, 2017, the package of legislative initiatives regulating the activities of the prosecutor's office was adopted by the deputy corps in the first reading. The parliamentarians conceptually supported the president's position - to return to the prosecutor's office its original functions of maintaining public prosecution in court and overseeing the criminal investigation process. At the same time, the legislators drew attention to a number of ambiguous moments of the legislations, on which a balanced consolidated solution should be found.

A working group was created whose members, including the members of the responsible committee, representatives of the prosecutor's office, the Supreme and Arbitration Courts, the Ministry of Justice, and the Ombudsman, were called to find a way out, including by amending the Basic Law of the state. Many months of joint work went to the final straight today. All the disputed issues were settled ahead of time, which allowed the deputies of the parliamentary committee on legislation, defense, security, peacekeeping, law enforcement, protection of citizens' rights and freedoms during the today's meeting to unanimously vote for the amendments to the four legislations - "On the PMR Prosecutor's Office", "On Making Amendments and Addendum to the Criminal Procedural Code of the PMR", "On Amendments and Addendum to the Law "On the Investigative Committee of the PMR", "On Amendments and Addendum to the Law on Operational Activities".

Deputies of the profile committee recommend their colleagues in the deputy corps to adopt legislations in the second final reading.