Vyacheslav Zoma

Head of Practice of Criminal Procedure and Business Protection of NOBILI Law Firm

Crib for victims – the second part

This article continues with professional advice on how to act in the event that a crime has been committed against you. That is, when you are a victim of crime. I would like to remind you once again that in accordance with Article 55 of the Criminal Procedure Code of Ukraine, the victim in our case is a natural person who has suffered moral, physical or property damage as a result of a criminal offense. We do not consider cases when the victim is a legal entity in this article.

If the crime has already taken place, both with your direct participation and without it. Then you have to submit an application for a criminal offense to a law enforcement agency which is responsible for investigating a crime committed against you. Most often it will be the National Police. They also have an internal structure and the division of criminal investigations is on a territorial basis. If the crime was committed in the Podilskyi district of Kyiv, then it is necessary to apply to the Podilskyi UE GUNP in Kyiv. Previously, it was effective to apply for a criminal offense to the prosecutor’s office, and the latter must submit the available materials to the investigative body in accordance with the rules of investigation and instruct a pre-trial investigation (Article 214 of the CPC of Ukraine). But at the moment it all comes down to formalism and in most cases the prosecutor’s office does not enter information into the Unified Register of Pre-trial Investigations (ERDR). Accordingly, no pre-trial investigation is conducted. Therefore, it is better to immediately contact the relevant territorial department of the National Police.

But even in this case, you should not count on “service”, as they say. In the vast majority of cases, it takes a lot of patience to simply file a criminal complaint against you. I hope you find the following tips helpful:

– First, purely formal details – you need to have a passport. In his absence – another document proving your identity. In addition, the most self-made statement of a criminal offense. You will also need documents in copies or originals. Confirming the circumstances of the crime – for example, the lease of the apartment from which your belongings were stolen, the contract of sale of the car, his passport in case of theft, checks, which indicate the value of stolen appliances, have a smartphone called by a person with threats, birth certificate of the child, if the crime was committed against her and other documents depending on and other documents confirming any circumstances of the crime. The statement of a criminal offense must set out a summary of the events – the criminal offense that was committed. Namely, the date, approximate time, place of the criminal offense, what actions were committed and what they were, who committed them, if known. Qualification of the criminal offense, which in your opinion was committed and your personal data and contact details as well. Suspicions about the perpetrators, as well as information about witnesses – last name, first name, patronymic, telephone and address must also be reported, and they must be recorded, both during interrogation and during the preparation of, for example, explanations. Although not provided for in the current CPC of Ukraine, but they are still.

 

– Secondly, in fact, in most cases for law enforcement officers – you are another ordinary person who came with their problems, and you do not bring any benefit to them, except for additional work and hassle. So get ready to wait, get ready to queue with quite different and specific citizens, and sometimes to indifference or banal rudeness and not only from visitors. And in this case it is necessary to explain clearly first of all to police officers that you need to accept your statement with documents on a criminal offense. It can be the next from the next part of regional department, the next investigator from investigative and operative group of regional department – the main thing that at you accepted your statement with the added documents and issued to you for confirmation the written document. This does not mean that this police officer will be involved investigation of criminal proceedings where you have to be recognized as a victim. If your application is not accepted – contact the management, demand that your rights be respected. Here it makes sense to use all the means not prohibited by law. In case it was inexpedient to waste time and you applied without the made statement and documents to regional department. Even in this case, the next part, or the next investigator of the investigative task force must provide you with an application form. Or to make the protocol of acceptance of the oral statement on a criminal offense. In this case, everything is filled in by the police officer from your explanations. Then you, having checked that all information from your words was entered into the protocol correctly, sign this protocol. All material circumstances must be entered accordingly, even verbatim in this protocol. Your signature indicates that you have read everything and everything is composed correctly from your words.

 

– Thirdly, even after your application with materials has been accepted, this does not mean that information about the criminal offense committed against you will be entered into the ERDR and a pre-trial investigation will begin. Because in most cases, if there has been no violent death or other extremely obvious crime, the information may simply not be entered into the ERDR. And in the best case, you will receive a piece of paper in the mail, on which the precinct officer will state his views that he sees no signs of a criminal offense. This is at best, because such a piece of paper can simply no one send. And you will receive it only in person, after 3-5 visits to the regional department. And in this case, it is advisable to appeal the inaction of the police to the investigating judge of the court in whose territory the police department is located, or another law enforcement agency. If you do not apply to the national police. That is, if, for example, you applied to the Investigative Department of Financial Investigations of the Main Department of the State Fiscal Service in Kyiv (located in the Shevchenkivskyi district of Kyiv), you need to file a complaint to the investigating judge of the Shevchenkivskyi District Court of Kyiv. And this is an effective mechanism, but in this case you still lose time – a month, and that two. Until the court considers your complaint.

From the above it is clear that this is a rather complicated procedure. Which is inconvenient and artificially complicated due to poor enforcement of current legislation by law enforcement agencies. It will be fair to note, and the author personally confirms that he encountered and is acquainted with decent and honest law enforcement officers. Who really perform their duties professionally and qualitatively, but at the moment this is more of an exception than the norm.

Of course, you should seek professional help from a lawyer. Because without experience it is really difficult to correctly state all the circumstances of a crime and to act professionally in relations with law enforcement officers, especially under the influence of all these circumstances.

Of course, these tips are not a universal algorithm for all possible actions and cases, but it, I hope if necessary, will be useful to you.

And remember the main thing, if you managed to save your health and life during the attack, your loved ones also saved their health and lives – your business is already in excellent condition!