Submit to the National Assembly a proposal to allow commune police to initiate criminal proceedings

This morning, Chief Justice of the Supreme People's Procuracy Nguyen Huy Tien presented to the National Assembly a draft law amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Criminal Procedure Code.

Director Nguyen Huy Tien said that in reality, there have been many particularly serious cases, causing huge property losses, but the defendants have fled, the search has been fruitless, or the defendants are overseas and cannot be summoned. The crimes of these defendants are closely related to the crimes of other defendants in the case.

Even though the prosecution agency has sufficient grounds to prove the crime and has concluded the investigation, proposed to prosecute, and prosecute the accused, it still has to decide to temporarily suspend the investigation and temporarily suspend the case and cannot handle it in absentia.

The current Criminal Procedure Code only has provisions on trial in absentia, and does not have specific provisions on this order and procedure during the investigation and prosecution stages.

The above reality has greatly affected the timely resolution of the case, the handling of other defendants in the case, and the recovery of assets.

Therefore, the Supreme People's Procuracy proposes to supplement the regulation that the investigation agency can conclude the investigation and propose prosecution, and the prosecutor can decide to prosecute the accused when there is sufficient basis and ensures the right to defense for the accused in the following two cases:

One is that the accused is absconding and the search has been fruitless. Two is that the accused is abroad and cannot be summoned to serve the investigation activities or to serve the activities to decide on prosecution.

Examining this content, Chairman of the Law and Justice Committee Hoang Thanh Tung said that the Committee agreed with the above regulation and the addition was appropriate.

The draft stipulates that in these cases, the defendant's right to defense must be fully guaranteed according to the provisions of the Criminal Procedure Code, thus ensuring strictness. Currently, the organization of the People's Public Security apparatus is structured into 3 levels (ministerial, provincial, communal), without district-level police. Therefore, the People's Public Security's investigation police agency will have 2 levels, including the Ministry of Public Security's investigation police agency and the provincial-level police investigation police agency.

To suit the new situation, the draft law adds a provision that the investigator is the chief (or deputy chief) of the commune-level police, and is authorized to be assigned to conduct prosecution and investigation of less serious and serious cases occurring in the commune, with a number of duties and powers as the head of the investigation agency.

In the review report, the Committee on Law and Justice agreed with the addition of a number of these tasks and powers, in order to promptly direct and resolve less serious and serious cases and incidents occurring at the commune level.

However, the Committee believes that the specific regulations on the duties and powers of this judicial position currently contain many inappropriate contents.

The draft law stipulates that the investigator is the chief (or deputy chief) of the commune-level police, who has the right to directly organize and direct the handling and handling of information about crimes, prosecutions, and investigations by the investigation agency. However, the commune-level police is not an investigation agency. The authority to investigate still belongs to the provincial-level police investigation agency, but is assigned to the investigator who is the chief (or deputy chief) of the commune-level police.

The draft also stipulates that this entity has the right to decide to apply, change, or cancel preventive measures and coercive measures. The examining agency believes that, after reviewing the preventive measures and coercive measures, the investigator who is the head (or deputy head) of the commune-level police has no authority to apply them.

Based on the proposal of the Ministry of Public Security, the draft supplements the regulation that intermediate-level investigators or higher (of the provincial-level Police Investigation Agency) are the chief of police, deputy chief of police at the commune level assigned by the head of the provincial-level Police Investigation Agency with the authority to initiate prosecution and investigate criminal cases of less serious and serious crimes, with the highest penalty of up to 7 years in prison occurring in the commune level, to meet practical requirements when there is no district-level police organization.

The Committee on Law and Justice recommends a thorough review to amend and supplement the contents related to the duties and powers of investigators of provincial-level police investigation agencies who are arranged to be chiefs (or deputy chiefs) of commune-level police to ensure consistency, consistency and feasibility.