Drat bills #10301 and #10302 of November 29, 2023
Sponsor: MP Serhii Demchenko, Servant of the People faction
Status: sent for review to the Committee on Legal Policy
Who is affected: suspects, accused of criminal offenses against peace, human security, and international legal order, service members, and courts
Summary:
- for judges of local and appellate courts, a new specialization will be introduced for considering criminal cases involving military criminal offenses, as well as criminal offenses against peace, human security, and international legal order. These judges will consider the following:
- review of the indictment
- petition for release from criminal liability
- application, amendment, or termination of compulsory medical measures
- appeals of decisions made on the issues above
- judges authorized to consider such cases will be elected from the judges of the respective court at the meeting of judges of this court for a term not exceeding five years with the possibility of re-election.
What is right:
- the possibility of having cases considered by judges who have specific knowledge of military and international law
- the bill proposes a viable alternative to the creation of military courts.
What is wrong:
- no provisions regarding the specifics for the consideration of such cases are included
- there are no criteria for delimiting the consideration of cases concerning breaches of international law between national and international courts
- workload of judges authorized to consider such cases during a state of war will significantly increase.
Alternative solution: the bill should be amended, details on the specifics of consideration of such cases should be included.
Additional information: article by Oksana Zabolotna A fair court for the military. Will the draft bill on military justice manage to fulfill its goal?