The Uzbek President Islam Karimov proposed this measure in his concept on further deepening democratic reforms and formation of civil society.
Current legislation does not clearly determine responsibility of state accuser (prosecutor) on announcement of accusation statement. That’s why, in many cases judges are announcing accusation statements, but this does not correspond to functions of courts. Introduction of this norm will help to ensure independence, objectiveness and impartiality of courts, strengthen competitiveness in criminal process.
It is also planned to exclude article 321 from Procedural Criminal Code of Uzbekistan on courts authority, in line with which judges has right to open criminal case. According to experts, this also impacts to decision making process of courts as they should evaluate legality and validity of accusations against defendant. Opening criminal cases by courts makes them participant of prosecution, which does not correspond to main goal of courts – carry out justice.
Uzbekistan carried out significant work on ensuring legality of work of legislative bodies, first of all reforming activity of prosecutors.
The Law “On prosecutor office” in new edition, adopted in 2001, increased responsibility of prosecutors on adhering to rights, freedoms and interest of human. The law also excluded right of prosecutors to stop execution of court decision, while prosecutors in cities and districts now do not have right to prolong investigation and adopt decision to hold defendant in prison.
It is also worth to note that Prosecutor’s Office in Uzbekistan created Department on ensuring human rights.