Features of Consideration of the Indictment Concerning the Committing of a Criminal Offense at a Stage of Preparatory Proceedings

This article is devoted to the study of the peculiarities of court consideration at the stage of preparatory proceedings of indictments, which are sent to court by the prosecutor to accuse persons of committing criminal offenses, as this institution is a novelty of the current CPC of Ukraine. In particular, the article, taking into account the analysis of the legal framework, opinions and positions of scientists, examines the procedural procedure for the court to conduct preparatory proceedings for indictments accusing persons of committing criminal offenses, simplified and general court proceedings in such proceedings. The article provides thorough circumstances regarding the need of the court in the preparatory proceedings to apply the general procedure of consideration of the indictment accusing persons of committing criminal offenses, which was sent to the court without the prosecutor’s request to conduct the trial in summary proceedings. Also, the article examines whether the prosecutor’s discretion is to send to court an indictment accusing persons of committing criminal offenses on a request for its consideration in a simplified manner without a trial in court if it is established during the pre-trial investigation that the suspect has unequivocally admitted his guilt, does not dispute the circumstances established by the pre-trial investigation and agrees to the indictment in his absence, and the victim, a representative of the legal entity in question, does not object to such consideration. Besides, the article addresses the question of whether the conduct of summary proceedings is at the discretion of the court. Most importantly, the article proposes changes in the CPC of Ukraine based on the results of comparison of scientific positions, analytical research of judicial practice, as well as practical experience, to eliminate gaps in the latter, during the preparatory proceedings for indictments against criminal offenses