Not everyone understands the procedure for serving the indictment: who does this, in what order, in what ways should the document be in the hands of the accused in practice? In this article we will consider the very concept of “indictment” and the procedure for serving it in detail.
Closing indictment
What is called indictment? This is a procedural document concluding the preliminary investigation. It contains the following:
- The charge, which is formulated on the basis of the filed case. It will record the breadth of proceedings in court.
- Both the system and the analysis of evidence.
- The decision of the officials and the competent authorities to refer the matter to the court for further consideration.
Indictment and indictment
The indictment should be distinguished from the indictment, which is signed not by the prosecutor, but by the investigator and the inquiry officer. This procedural document is governed by Art. 225 Code of Criminal Procedure. Includes, among other things:
- Data on the citizen prosecuted.
- Time, place, motives, goals, methods of commission, consequences of the crime and other significant details.
- Formulated charge.
- Evidence (and its summary) that support the allegations.
- Circumstances that both mitigate and aggravate the charge.
- Information about the victim, about the harm done to him.
- The list of persons who are required to appear in court.
An indictment is not an indictment yet; the accused is simply introduced to its contents. In addition, the document should be reviewed by his defender. These perfect facts are marked in the minutes of familiarization with the data of the criminal case. But the conclusion of this document will be after signing by the prosecutor.
Information in the indictment
According to Art. 220 of the CPC, the act at the stage of the indictment must contain the following:
- The names of all the accused.
- Data on the identities of these individuals.
- The essence of the charge.
- Full details of the crime: place, time, motives, goals, consequences, methods of commission.
- The wording of the charge is based on articles of the Criminal Code, which provide for certain liability for this act.
- Summary of evidence supporting the allegation.
- List of evidence submitted by the defense and a summary thereof.
- A listing of circumstances that mitigate and aggravate the charge.
- Submission of data on the victim, the amount and nature of the harm caused to him.
- Information about the civil defendant and civil plaintiff.
Features of the indictment
Here are a number of inherent features of the document:
- Mandatory content of links to articles and volumes of the Criminal Code.
- Must have information about the place of compilation and be signed by the investigator.
- The following must be attached to the indictment: a list of persons to be summoned to court from both the defense and the prosecution; certificate of the investigation period; certificate of the appointed preventive measures, which indicates the time of house arrest and detention, physical evidence.
- After the investigator signs the indictment, he is obligatorily sent to the prosecutor, together with the criminal case.After the indictment is approved by this official, a copy of this document is sent to the accused, which we will discuss in detail later. This will be the topic "The indictment is given to the accused after ..."
We also note that until this year, the text of the indictment for the trial was uncritical. In most cases, it was simply copied into a sentence.
Letter of the law
Continue the sentence "The indictment is served on the accused after ..." Articles 221 and 222 of the Criminal Procedure Code of the Russian Federation. According to these acts:
- After the indictment is approved, the prosecutor sends a criminal case to the court. He is obliged to notify both the accused himself and the defense attorney, civil plaintiff, victim, civil defendant, as well as their representatives.
- Copies of the indictment are presented to the accused by the prosecutor himself. Also, this official is obliged to provide them to the victim and counsel at the request of the latter.
- The indictment is served upon the accused after being signed by the prosecutor also if the accused is in custody. In this case, a copy of the document on behalf of the prosecutor is handed over by the administration of the institution. At the same time, she is obliged to provide the court with a receipt with the time and date of delivery.
- The law also takes into account the following situation: the accused refused his copy of the indictment, ignored the call or otherwise avoided serving the document. In this case, the criminal case is also sent to the court by the prosecutor, only with an explanation attached, which lists the reasons why the accused does not have a copy of the document in his hands.
On practice
This question contains more than one test: the indictment is presented to the accused and then in practice? The answer is the same: after the approval of this document and before the transfer of the criminal case to court.
Who in practice hands the accused? Of course, not the prosecutor himself, but the police officers. These are interrogators, investigators and other employees who have free working time for this.
The indictment and the Anglo-Saxon legal system
In states belonging to the Anglo-Saxon legal family, an indictment (eng. bill of indictment) is the official accusation of a citizen of an already committed criminal offense (criminal act, grave criminal offense).
After the accused went on trial by jury, the presiding jury, after evaluating the information received, issued this indictment if it found the person guilty. In the opposite situation, it was said that the case was dismissed.
Thus, the indictment is served on the accused after approval by the prosecutor. Prior to this, drawn up by the investigator or interrogating officer, it is called the indictment. After serving this document, the criminal case is submitted to court.