The Committee of the Criminal Enforcement System of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Kazakhstan (CCES MIA RK) has reiterated that it is not responsible for keeping statistics on deferment of sentences, even after the FBRK editorial office appealed to the Prosecutor General's Office.
WHAT THE CCES SAID
The response was received by the FBRK editorial office as part of the consideration of a request sent to the Prosecutor General's Office of the Republic of Kazakhstan, which was subsequently forwarded to the CCES.
In its response, the department stated that:
- keeping official statistics on deferments of sentences falls under the remit of the Committee for Legal Statistics and Special Records of the Prosecutor General's Office of the Republic of Kazakhstan;
- recording court decisions and distributing data by type of crime also does not fall within the functions of the CCES.
At the same time, the CCES noted that it has only approximate data: deferments are most often applied for Article 189 ("Appropriation or Embezzlement") and Article 190 ("Fraud") of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan, but official statistics on these indicators are not kept.
CONTEXT OF THE SITUATION
Earlier, the FBRK editorial office sent requests to both departments — the Committee for Legal Statistics of the Prosecutor General's Office and the CCES MIA RK — but received contradictory responses: each pointed to the other as the body responsible for keeping the statistics.
Following this, the editorial office filed complaints with both bodies, and also appealed to the Prosecutor General's Office asking it to provide a legal assessment of their actions.
In response to the editorial office's complaint, the Committee for Legal Statistics has already sent a preliminary decision and provided part of the statistical data, while confirming the absence of information on the actual consequences of deferment.
At the same time, the appeal to the Prosecutor General's Office was forwarded to the CCES, which again pointed to the Committee for Legal Statistics as the responsible body.
WHAT'S NEXT
At present, the complaint from the FBRK editorial office, sent directly to the CCES MIA RK, remains under consideration.