Implementation of European Standards for the Institute of Detention of a Suspect in Criminal Justice Reform

The article justifies the need to improve the institution of detention of a suspect in criminal proceedings in Ukraine. This is due to the need to implement European standards, which are set out in the European Convention on Human Rights and implemented in the practice of the European Court of Human Rights. This is not about the declarative, but the real introduction of the rule of law, the presumption of innocence, the prohibition of discrimination against a person who has been temporarily deprived of his liberty by means of his detention and detention in places of deprivation of liberty.

The purpose of the article is to identify problematic issues of human rights compliance when detaining a person on suspicion of committing a criminal offense without a decision of an investigating judge or court and ways to resolve them through the prism of European standards. From this angle, the relevant norms of the Criminal Procedure Code of Ukraine and departmental regulatory legal acts of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine are analyzed. In particular, such regulatory acts are instructions that are guided by officials responsible for ensuring compliance with the rights of detained suspects. It is noted that such officials cannot be investigators, inquirers, heads of pre-trial investigation bodies, heads of inquiry bodies, other employees of the pre-trial investigation body and operational units.

The elements of the procedure for implementing the institution of detention of a suspect are analyzed: detention of a person during the commission of a criminal offense or an attempt to commit it; delivery of the detainee to the territorial police unit (duty unit); placement of the person in a room for detainees for up to 3 hours; transfer of the detainee to a temporary detention center for up to 72 hours. During the implementation of this procedure, authorized officials must take actions to ensure strict compliance with the rights of the detainee: draw up a detention report in accordance with Article 208 of the Code of Criminal Procedure; immediately inform the detainee in a language understandable to him of the grounds for detention and the criminal offense he is suspected of committing; explain the right to have a lawyer, receive medical assistance, give explanations, testimony or say nothing about the suspicion against him, and others.

It is emphasized that the position of human rights inspector has been introduced in the staffing of temporary detention facilities. He is authorized not only to carry out registration and organizational measures, but also to perform certain control actions over the observance of the rights of detainees who are brought to the facility. This inspector is charged with the duty of identifying signs of any forms of torture, cruel, inhuman, degrading treatment and reporting them to the prosecutor's office. It is concluded that currently there is a need to coordinate the powers of various officials involved in the implementation of the institution of detention of a suspect without a warrant from an investigating judge or a court.