The investigator’s request came in accordance with Art. 93 CCP of Ukraine – what to do?

Very often, business representatives face the following problem: they receive requests from investigators or other representatives of law enforcement agencies to provide documents or certain information. The question arises: what to do in this situation? Our specialists - professional lawyers of "PRIKHODKO & PARTNERS" will help you to solve this problem.

The procedure for submitting requests is defined by Article 93 of the Criminal Procedure Code of Ukraine

The investigator's requests are sent to business representatives in accordance with Article 93 of the Criminal Procedure Code of Ukraine. Among other things, this article states that the prosecuting party (prosecutor, investigator) may request and receive from institutions, organizations, enterprises documents, things, information for gathering evidence during the conduct of a particular criminal proceeding. Important: the collection of evidence may be based solely on the officer's desire to obtain the information specified in the request. At the same time, it is not necessary that this request be supported by a court decision or other reasonable grounds.

What do the lawyers of "PRIKHODKO & PARTNERS" pay attention to in the process of analyzing a request from an investigator? First of all, for its design. The request must meet the following characteristics:

• Have the correct registration. Such a request is printed exclusively on the forms of the relevant law enforcement agencies. It must contain information about the name and position of the person who wrote it, the number of the criminal proceedings, etc.
• Availability of justifications (real grounds) for obtaining certain documents.

Is it possible to refuse the investigator's request?

In most cases, the response to the investigator's request in accordance with Article 93 of the Criminal Procedure Code of Ukraine is a refusal to provide information and documents. And this is quite a logical reaction, adequate protection of the interests of business representatives. This was due to the fact that there are no real grounds for forcibly obtaining these documents.

After ignoring the request or receiving a refusal, the investigator can use another method of obtaining the necessary documents. We are talking about the investigator's appeal to the judge with a request to grant permission for temporary access to documents and things.

Thus, in accordance with the current Ukrainian legislation, the investigator, within the limits of his powers, can send requests. In the absence of a court order, the request is considered your right, not your obligation.

At the same time, it is worth noting that the consequence of refusing the investigator to provide documents upon request may be the seizure of even more documents
Summing up, it is worth noting that both civilians and companies are not obliged to respond to requests from investigators. The current Criminal Procedure Code of Ukraine provides for a completely different procedure for collecting evidence, which is necessary for the investigation of criminal offenses.

"PRIKHODKO & PARTNERS" lawyers carefully evaluate the advantages and risks of the above options in each specific situation. Only professional legal assistance will allow you to correctly solve the existing problem. We are waiting for you for consultation!