The bill that provides for the revision of the legislation for simplifying the procedures for examining criminal cases was given a second, final reading by Parliament. The document stipulates three simplified procedures designed to optimize the procedures, such as the guilt recognition agreement, legal agreement of public interest and trying based on evidence collected at the investigation stage, IPN reports.

Under the bill, if a guilt recognition agreement is signed, the accused person can have the punishment limit reduced by one third if the court accepts the agreement.

The legal agreement of public interest will be applied only to legal entities for committing such offenses as tax evasion of enterprises, institutions and organizations, money laundering, active corruption, influence peddling or bribery.

Trying based on evidence collected at the investigation stage, which is another simplified procedure, will take place only if the offenders fully accept the charges, ask for the collection of new evidence or, if the proofs collected at the investigation stage, are sufficient to prove the blame of the accused. In this case, the punishment limit will be cut by one fourth.

In the second reading, the legislative proposal was merged with the bill that separated the duties of the Anticorruption Prosecutor’s Office and the National Anticorruption Center when investigating cases of grand corruption. This way, the first institution will investigate such cases, while the second institution will deal with cases of systemic corruption. Petty corruption will be investigated by the prosecution body of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.