A lawmaker from the ruling United Russia party has introduced to the State Duma a bill proposing amendments to the Criminal Code that would limit the amount of information that can be classified as secret by law enforcement agencies during the course of an investigation, the RBC news agency reported.
The bill, brought forward by Pavel Krasheninnikov, a United Russia party deputy and head of the legislation committee of the State Duma, would make it possible to disclose without permission information about a criminal investigation being opened into someone, notifications about arrests, charges and the status of a suspect and information about human rights violations, RBC reported Friday.
Currently the Criminal Code stipulates that no information about preliminary investigations can be revealed without permission from an investigator, the report said, and people involved in the investigation sign a document warning them not to disclose such information or face paying an 80,000-ruble ($1,230) fine, three months' detention or community service.
“The bill will help make criminal investigations, including high-profile ones, more open to the public,” the lawmaker was cited by RBC as saying.
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