ST. PETERSBURG, March 26 (RAPSI) – Russia’s Constitutional Court posted a resolution on its website Wednesday reading that certain individuals with a criminal record can seek police employment.

The resolution was adopted after hearing the testimony of three former police offices in Dagestan and one from a former police officer in Tatarstan. The cases against these officers were closed after the parties reached a settlement and long before the disputed clause of Article 82 of the federal law On Law Enforcement Service came into force on January 1, 2012. In the case of the officer from Tatarstan, the article on “affront” under which he was charged has been decriminalized.

The four were dismissed from the police force after the disputed provision came into force.

The Constitutional Court has concluded that this provision places police officers whose cases were closed due to the settlement of the parties before the disputed legislation came into force in an unequal position with police officers who found themselves in the same situation after the disputed provision became effective.

“This inequality was created by the fact that before the disputed provision came into force a police officer who accepted settlement in his case could not foresee the career consequences of his position during the criminal procedure being pursued against him,” explained Judge Alexander Kokotov who prepared a report on these complaints.