01.06.09

Cases involving big bribes or bribes received by organised groups are quite rare in judicial practice, Supreme Court Chairman Vyacheslav Lebedev said.

"We sum up criminal cases involving bribes. This is the most common crime among all corruption crimes. Law enforcement, healthcare, education, tax, fire inspection and other officials are convicted most often. Cases involving minor bribes make up an overwhelming majority," he told the Federation Council on Wednesday.

In his words, "One in four convicts in such cases is a woman."

At the same time, verdicts in cases involving big bribes or bribes received by organised groups or by previous agreement account for only 7 percent of all persons convicted for bribery.

The Supreme Court is currently summing up corruption cases and will issue a resolution by the end of summer with recommendations to judges how to handle such cases.

The Supreme Court plenum also plans to draft a resolution on the form of punishment for such offences. "Now 33.3 percent of persons are sentenced to imprisonment, which is more than 300,000 convicts. This is a rather big percentage. And there are a number of reasons for that. Some forms of punishment, such as limitation of freedom or arrest, are nit effective. The Justice Ministry is now working on the relevant regulatory framework. And I think that once they are introduced, the number of people sentenced to alternative forms of punishment will increase," Lebedev said.

The Supreme Court also advises courts to use obligatory works more widely as a form of punishment.

Addressing the senators earlier, Prosecutor General Yuri Chaika said he was dissatisfied with the fight against corruption as most of those brought to justice are teachers, medics and low-tier officials.

He pointed out that investigators often prosecute people for so-called domestic corruption.

According to the prosecutor general, 29 percent of those sentenced for corruption are law enforcers, and 11 percent healthcare workers and educators.

At the same time, the prosecutor general said the law enforcement system had generally succeeded in making progress in exposing official malfeasances. "The number of exposed crimes against the interests of the government and local self-government bodies is growing quite rapidly. A big portion of those crimes is corruption offences.

Last year, over 43,000 such offences were exposed and the criminal cases for 28,000 of them were transferred to courts. Almost 1,500 offences were committed on a large scale. About 14,000 persons involved in official crimes were exposed," Chaika said.

The number of exposed corruption cases continues to grow, Chaika said: in 2008, law enforcement agencies registered 12,500 corruption incidents (up 7.7 percent from 2007) and 43,500 offences against the government (an increase of 11.4 percednt); only the number of commercial bribery incidents decreased to 1,712 (down by 23.8 percent from 2007).

Police investigators transferred 27.4 percent fewer corruption-related cases to courts than in the previous year, and investigators of the Investigation Committee under the Prosecutor General's Office, 4.5 percent fewer. "The fight against corruption by way of criminal and legal methods was not .875 intensified," Chaika stated.

The number of bribe-givers in the country is not directly proportional to the number of governmental or municipal officials or to the level of economic development in regions, prosecutors say. For example, only 161 bribery incidents were registered in St. Petersburg but 298 in Tambov.

Exposing corruption-related offences becomes particularly relevant during the global economic crisis, he emphasised. "At a time of economic difficulties government officials who try to make a fortune using unlawful methods should be dismissed from civil service," he said.

Chaika suggested extending the bans applicable to rank-and-file government officials to persons who hold governmental positions, including in regions; introducing penalties for ineffective use of budget funds; and approving the procedure for verifying property declarations submitted by government officials and their families.

Replying to the senators' questions, Chaika disagreed that sophisticated and multi-episode economic crimes were not investigated in Russia. "We have improved our work significantly, including in terms of prosecuting officials. The number of persons extradited by foreign states has also increased several times. For the first time, Great Britain has extradited two persons to our country," he added.

According to Chaika, Swiss banks have for the first time responded to Russian prosecutors' requests, and Russia won a case, recovering 100 million U.S. dollars owned by Sovkomflot. "I think another 600 million U.S. dollars will come next," he added.

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Source: Itar-Tass