The Federal Penitentiary Service of Russia has excluded from the draft on the procedure for visiting a pre-trial detention center the requirement for employees ONCnotify about the visit 48 hours before arrival. The new text of the draft is published on the portal of draft normative legal acts.
The Ministry of Justice and employees of the Moscow PMC supported the initiative of the Federal Penitentiary Service to exclude this item from the draft. “We support the decision of the director of the Federal Penitentiary Service of Russia to eliminate the 48-hour rule. This shows that the Federal Penitentiary Service is following the path of openness and maximum assistance to public control in places of detention,” said Olga Druzhinina, Deputy Chairman of the Moscow Commission, in a conversation with Interfax.
On April 4, it became known that the Federal Penitentiary Service wanted to oblige to notify PMC representatives of visits to the pre-trial detention center 48 hours in advance. According to the explanatory note, changes to the regulations for visiting detention centers were necessary to “organize the personal security of members of the public monitoring commission, as well as to establish the existence of circumstances that prevent members of public monitoring commissions from visiting places of detention.”
After that, PMC employees criticized draft on the procedure for visiting the pre-trial detention center. Thus, Georgy Volkov, chairman of the Moscow PMC, in a conversation with reporters, said that if the bill is adopted, it will actually lead to a halt in the activities of the commission and will negatively affect the protection of the rights of prisoners. “If such restrictions are adopted, then the activities of the commissions will be untenable. Imitation. Some of my colleagues told me that they would publicly resign. I support them, they do not intend to imitate activity,” he added.