Important powers of prosecutors are given to courts

In Uzbekistan, it is expected that the authority to search, listen to telephone conversations and sanction the seizure of property will be transferred from the prosecutors to the court.  This is stated in the draft decree of the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev "On the state program for the implementation of the development strategy of New Uzbekistan for the years 2022-2026 in the year of attention to people and quality education."

The draft decree was put up for public discussion yesterday, 7 February.

According to the draft decree, the draft law, which provides for the following provisions on strengthening justice and the rule of law, ensuring unconditional observance of human rights and freedoms, will be submitted to the Legislative Chamber of the Oliy Majlis (parliament) in the prescribed manner:

• to further expand the practice of using the institution of "habeas corpus" in the process of investigating crimes, to transfer the power from prosecutors to courts to sanction searches, listen to telephone conversations, and seize property;

In the last 3 years, about 4,000 properties belonging to citizens were seized during the investigation, and as a result of the case review, the court directed the recovery of only 1,300 of them, 2,700 properties were wrongly targeted during the investigation, and were later cancelled.

• The introduction of the procedure for submitting the criminal case to the courts together with the indictment (indictment) and the defense counsel's opinion.
Currently, criminal cases are brought to the courts only with an indictment, as a result of which judges are inclined to accuse in the very process of familiarizing themselves with the case.  To ensure the equality of the parties in the criminal proceedings, it is decided to introduce the opinion of the defender to the court.

The Chairman of the Supreme Court Bakhtiyor Islamov, the Ministry of Justice Akbar Tashkulov, and the Prosecutor General Nigmatilla Yoldashev are responsible for ensuring that relevant draft laws are developed and included in the State Program within the specified time limits.