1
What happened?
On the night of March 28, before the verdict in the case of “discrediting” the army, Aleksey Moskalev escaped from house arrest. On the same day, the father of sixth grader Masha Moskaleva, who drew an anti-war cartoon, was sentenced to two years in prison. And on the night of March 30, Aleksey Moskalev was arrested in Minsk.
2
What threatens him for this?
First – change the restraint measure to a stricter one. This is clearly spelled out in the Code of Criminal Procedure of the Russian Federation.
Article 107. House arrest
14. In the event of violation by the suspect or the accused, in respect of whom house arrest is chosen as a coercive measure, of the conditions for the execution of this coercive measure, refusal to apply the audiovisual means, electronic and other technical means of control to him, or the deliberate damage, destruction, violation of the integrity of these means, or the commission by him of other actions aimed at disturbing the functioning of the audiovisual, electronic means of control and other techniques applied to it, the court at the request of the investigator or the officer in charge of the interrogation, and during the trial on the proposal of the supervisory body may change this restraining measure to a stricter measure.
The only stricter coercive measure is detention. It is used only when the suspect or the accused violated a previously chosen preventive measure, fled from the preliminary investigation bodies or from the court. In other words, Moskalev could hypothetically be placed in a remand center until the court’s verdict takes effect – either for the next ten days or, if the defense appeals the decision, before the appeal not be examined.
But since Moskalev has already been sentenced to serve his sentence in a colony, he would have been sent to a remand center without escaping before being transferred to a colony. So in this regard, nothing has really changed for the defendant.
3
And could the judge take into account the fact that Moskalev escaped and, because of that, impose a harsher sentence?
Legally, he couldn’t.
Alexei Moskalev left his apartment the day before the trial. debate and the last word took place before his escape. In other words, when the court received information about what had happened, the judge was in the deliberation room and, according to the law, could not consider any question that had not been raised earlier during the hearing. the hearing.
However, specializing in criminal procedural law, in a conversation with Meduza he admitted that unofficially the court could have known about the escape (for example, the judge received a call from the Federal Service for penitentiaries). It is not excluded that initially the court imposed a not so severe sentence, but contrary to the law, it toughened it. However, we will probably never know.
4
What would have happened if he had fled earlier, before the debate and the last word?
The judge would almost certainly have toughened the sentence (and that would already be within the law).
As the same lawyer told Meduza, if a person is arrested after escaping from house arrest, the chances of getting a suspended sentence, a fine or will be almost nil. At the same time, the law does not oblige the judge to impose a more severe sentence, but in practice this is most often the case.
5
That is, if you run away, then after the last word and before the verdict – and this does not threaten anything?
Unfortunately, this threatens – the prosecutor can appeal the verdict, referring, among other things, to escape.
According to Meduza in the law of criminal procedure, according to the law, a prosecutor can appeal an unduly lenient sentence, including on the grounds of escape, and the judge of the appeal body must make the final decision. There are many cases where the behavior of the convict after the verdict (for example, the commission of a new crime) was taken into account by the appeal – and the sentence became stricter.
In addition, the judge can increase the prison sentence taking into account the escape, but without mentioning it in the decision.
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And besides the fear of a crueler punishment, is there anything preventing the accused from escaping?
Yes, there are many other reasons why escapes from house arrest are far from being a mass phenomenon.
- According to human rights activists interviewed by Meduza, many defendants do not know the details of the law and simply do not know that escaping from house arrest is, according to the law, potentially not a very violation. severe.
- It is not so easy to live illegally inside the country and not everyone can leave the country.
- Many people don’t know how to cut the bracelets that people under house arrest are required to wear so bailiffs don’t have time to react quickly.