MOSCOW, September 27 - RAPSI. The State Duma has passed certain government-proposed amendments to the Correctional Code in the first reading which will regulate the timeframe for censoring convicts' correspondence for the first time. These amendments will also prohibit letters addressed to certain institutions from being opened, including any written to the Russian president or the European Court of Human Rights.

The draft law will give prisoners the right to obtain information about the posting of their letters and has set a three-day period for censoring letters in Russian and a seven-day period for those in a foreign language.

Those letters which are now forbidden to be opened for censoring shall be posted within one day.

The bill contains a list of institutions and people with whom convicts can correspond without being subject to censorship. This list includes: the Russian president, the State Duma and the Federation Council, the government, regional parliaments, regional executive authorities, prosecutor's offices, federal and regional ombudsmen, the children's ombudsman, non-government supervisory commissions and the ECHR.