MEETING OF THE CENTER FOR LEGISLATIVE INITIATIVES AT THE MOSCOW BUSINESS OMBUDSMAN

On 27/07/2022, a meeting of the Center for Legislative Initiatives (the “CLI“) under the Commissioner for the Protection of the Rights of Entrepreneurs in Moscow was held, at which the proposals of Linnikov and Partners on amendments to criminal legislation and by-laws regulating the procedure for medical examination of convicts subject to release from punishment due to illness were discussed. Extensive experience of L&P attorneys in the field of criminal law creates a practical basis for work on improving the legislation on entrepreneurship and the norms that lie at the junction of criminal and business law, on the basis of the Public Reception of the Moscow Business Ombudsman in the Central Administrative District, operating under the leadership of the founder of Linnikov and Partners.


During the meeting, Tatiana Tsepkina and Leonid Karpov, leaders of the criminal law practice of L&P, spoke about the problem of legal uncertainty that prevents fair and timely resolution by the courts of the petitions of convicts for release from punishment due to serious illness. Thanks to rich practice, attorneys of Linnikov and Partners were able to give many real examples. The vagueness of the wording of the criminal law, which grants the court only the “right” to release seriously ill convicts, often gives rise to a free interpretation by the courts of this norm and leads to the fact that people subject to release due to illness continue to remain in places of deprivation of liberty, and sometimes die without proper medical care, without waiting for a fair and a humane court decision.


The urgency of the problem requiring legislative regulation was supported by a representative of the Ministry of Justice of Russia, who reported on the upcoming changes to the criminal law. Members of the legal community, as well as representatives of the Federal Penitentiary Service of Russia for Moscow, the Federal Medical and Sanitary Unit No. 77 of the Federal Penitentiary Service of Russia and the Public Monitoring Commission of Moscow took part in the discussion of the proposals.


As result of the meeting, L&P attorneys agreed with representatives of Russian Ministry of Justice on the possibility of developing common position on the issue under discussion and its further inclusion in the annual report of the Moscow Business Ombudsman to the Mayor of Moscow.