Prosecution by the prosecutor of the implementation of the principles of legality during the suspension of the pre-trial investigation

The article examines the issue of the prosecutor ensuring the legality of the grounds and conditions for stopping the pre-trial investigation. Problematic issues have been analyzed and ways to solve them have been proposed regarding the practical application of legislation regulating the suspension of pre-trial investigation. It has been established that, in general, the prosecutor’s enforcement of legality during the suspension of the pre-trial investigation is manifested in the verification of the legality of the grounds and conditions of such suspension. It was established that the main legal consequence of the decision to stop the pre-trial investigation is the interruption of the calculation of the terms of the pre-trial investigation. It was concluded that the prosecutor’s ensuring the legality of the grounds for stopping the pre-trial investigation is related to ensuring the principle of reasonableness of terms in the criminal process. It has been established that during the suspension of the pre-trial investigation, its actual term of two months specified by law can be significantly «stretched», which can lead to the violation of the right to a fair trial in terms of the violation of the right to a reasonable period of proceedings, as well as to the loss of the effectiveness of criminal proceedings. It was noted that the implementation of procedural actions and the use of measures to support investigators and inquirers during the suspension of the pre-trial investigation contradict the implementation of the principle of legality, and indicate the groundlessness of the suspension of the pre-trial investigation. Attention has been drawn to the fact that in the case of carrying out the specified actions and measures during the suspended proceedings, the defense party, in particular the suspect, during this period lose the opportunity to fully exercise their criminal procedural rights, that is, they cannot fully exercise their defense. It is proposed to supplement the national criminal procedural legislation with the rule that during the suspension of the pre-trial investigation after notification of the suspect, it is prohibited to carry out not only investigative (search) actions, but also measures to ensure criminal proceedings and other procedural actions aimed at demanding and obtaining evidence, i.e. all procedural methods of exposing the person who was notified of the suspicion.