Russia (bbabo.net), - If the property of the person involved in the criminal case, which is planned to be arrested, is pledged, the investigator will be obliged to contact the accused's creditors. The relevant bill was submitted for public discussion by the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation.
According to the project, law enforcement officers will have to notify the creditor that they intend to ask the court to seize the pledged property. Financiers will be at least warned that they may have problems. As much as possible, they can challenge the decision in court.
Chairman of the Board of the Russian Bar Association Vladimir Gruzdev said that the draft amendments to the Code of Criminal Procedure prepared by the Ministry of Justice are aimed at protecting the rights of pledgees in cases where the owners of pledged property become defendants in criminal cases. A common case is when creditors, such as banks, act as mortgagees.
“Let me remind you that Article 115 of the Code of Criminal Procedure of the Russian Federation gives the investigator the right to file a petition before the court to seize property in the framework of criminal proceedings. Seizure of property is a measure of procedural coercion, which consists in prohibiting the owner or possessor of property from disposing or using it,” Vladimir Gruzdev explained.
He stressed that in some cases, property can be confiscated from the owner and transferred for storage.
"The bill creates a mechanism for lifting such an arrest in the event that the property is pledged. Creditors will be able to protect their legitimate interests within the framework of legal procedures," summed up the chairman of the board of the AJUR.
In particular, as told in the Ministry of Justice, the pledgee will have the right to petition for the abolition of the arrest in case of a significant disproportion in the volume of requirements that he provides. That is, the possible debt is much less than the cost of the defendant's apartment or car.
If the value of the property is clearly higher than the amount of the possible debt, the arrest can be challenged
In criminal cases, the defendant's property is often seized in order to have a guarantee of damages. Or if there are suspicions that the property was acquired with criminal proceeds. It also happens that the defendant faces a large fine. In this case, it is also reasonable to arrest his yachts and cottages in advance so that he does not have time to hide everything and immediately after the verdict pretend to be indigent.
But still, as experts say, in practice, incidents sometimes arise when some property of the defendant is pledged to the bank. Moreover, the bank has nothing to do with the dark affairs of the defendant: an honest loan was issued at honest interest. Perhaps the accused really did something bad and must compensate both his victims and the state. However, the debt to the bank does not disappear anywhere, and it would be wrong to make bankers extreme. Therefore, it is proposed to prescribe additional norms in the Code of Criminal Procedure.
"The bill also provides for the right of the pledgee to appeal against the judge's decision to seize the pledged property (to extend the term for seizing) to a higher court in the appellate (cassation) order," the justice ministry said.
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