MOSCOW, January 28 (RAPSI) – Russia’s business rights commissioner Boris Titov has asked the chairman of the Supreme Court Vyacheslav Lebedev to pay attention to the “trial within a reasonable time” problem encountered in organization of transfer of criminal cases to appeals instances, the ombudsman’s press-service informs.

It is observed, as Titov has found out according to the statement, that lower courts are often late to submit the required materials to courts of appeal due to the fact that making court records takes too much time.

Today, the Code of Criminal Procedure regulates the terms of appellation and hearing of appeals, and sets a 3-days deadline for making court records available; nevertheless, some Code provisions permit to extend this time. At the same time, there are no caps on the overall time lower courts require for preparing documents to be sent to appeals instances, the statement reads.

Although the problem is caused mostly by courts overload affecting the needed paperwork, it cannot excuse delays, Titov believes, so he asks the Supreme Court chairman to analyze the relevant judicial practice and put forward an initiative to amend the Code of Criminal Procedure by introducing a provision setting time limits on the preparation of court records.