Mikhail Burla, “No one disputes the principle of inevitability of punishment. We are against retroactivity”

The central issue on the agenda of the first plenary meeting of the tenth session of the Supreme Council of the V convocation was the president's initiative to amend the Criminal Code. This is the fourth time of abolition of the limitation period under Art. 104 Criminal Code of the PMR “Murder”. Current regulations require closure of cases after 15 years from the commission of such crimes. The Head of State proposes to remove this restriction. Parliamentarians support the idea in this case, but most strongly opposed law retroactive. The fact is that the author of the law-in-draft insists on distributing the new provisions on legal relations arising from 1 January 1993. This very part of the initiative has been and remains a stumbling block. The version of the law, adopted in his time with the exception in due course, was vetoed. Deputies still insist on the illegitimacy of the law came into force retroactively. It does not allow our Constitution, there was no such precedent in international practice. A weighty argument in the dispute was the fact that there is no such provision in the legislation of Russia and the CIS countries.

The argument of lawmakers and many supporters of their position were not changed for several years discussing the initiative. Speaking at the plenary meeting, the Commissioner for Human Rights in PMR Vasily Calco drew attention to the fact that the adoption of the law-in-draft, courts became into an ambiguous legal situation.

These reasons have been supplied by legislators and in today's plenary session. They addressed their questions this time to the Deputy Chairman of the Investigative Committee of PMR Vasiliy Kovach - he represented and defended the position of the author of the law-in-draft. The answers, however, did not add clarity. Parliamentarians did not understand why the initiatives in support of statistical data on crime rates in recent years, if an attempt is made to change the rules of twenty-two years old. The choice of the date of entry into force was not supported by anything.

Having examined all the arguments, the responsible committee decided to recommend to the Plenary adoption of the law-in-draft in the first reading, taking into account the conceptual remarks on exclusion rules conferring retroactive law. That is, according to parliamentarians, the law, abolishing the statute of limitations on such crimes composition as murder, should enter into force after its adoption, signing and promulgation. Officials from the President said that this provision – is a part of the concept, and without the law will not be signed. As consequence, the deputies supporting the principle of inevitability of punishment, but not allowing the possibility of making the law retroactive, again voted against the law-in-draft as a whole.

During the roll-call vote the Committee's decision was supported by 14 parliamentarians. 18 voted against. The law-in-draft on Amendments to the Criminal Code shall be considered as rejected because it has not received the required number of votes for adoption.