Parliament proposes to restrict law enforcement entry to homes without a court order

Bill No. 15488 has been registered in the Verkhovna Rada to strengthen guarantees of inviolability of the home and establish clearer rules for law enforcement officers conducting urgent searches without a prior investigative judge's order.

The document, one of whose authors is Member of Parliament Fedir Venislavskyi, provides for amendments to Part Three of Article 233 of the Criminal Procedure Code of Ukraine.

Under current rules, an investigator, inquirer, or prosecutor may enter a home or other property without prior court permission only in urgent cases related to saving human lives and property or in direct pursuit of suspects.

The authors of the bill point out that the law does not clearly define when exactly “saving property” justifies entry without a court decision. As a result, the need to find and seize potential physical evidence can actually be equated to an urgent situation.

The bill proposes to allow urgent entry to save property only based on a reasoned decision by the investigator, inquirer, or prosecutor and meeting the following conditions simultaneously:

• it concerns specific, individually defined property;
• the criminal proceedings have gathered sufficient evidence that it has or may have signs of physical evidence;
• there is a real, concrete, and immediate threat of destruction, damage, or loss of that property;
• it is objectively impossible to obtain an investigative judge's order without risk of losing the property.

Thus, the mere need to find and seize possible evidence will not suffice for entry into a home without a prior court order.

After completing the urgent actions, the prosecutor, investigator, or inquirer, with the prosecutor's consent, will have to apply to the investigative judge within 24 hours with a motion to conduct a search. Currently, the CPC requires this to be done “urgently” without setting a specific deadline.

The judge will have to check not only the reasonableness of the search itself, but also whether the grounds stipulated by law for entry without a prior order really existed. If there were no such grounds or evidence of a real threat to the property, the judge must issue a separate ruling on illegal entry against all persons who made the decision to conduct this investigative action.

If the prosecutor does not approve the motion or the court denies the search, the obtained evidence will be inadmissible, the collected information shall be destroyed, and the seized property and documents will have to be returned within 24 hours.

The explanatory note states that the changes are intended to prevent the use of urgent entry as a way to circumvent prior judicial control. At the same time, law enforcement officers will retain the ability to act without delay if a real threat of loss of physical evidence exists.

If adopted, the law will take effect the day after its official publication. Its implementation will not require additional expenditures from the state budget.

Based on materials from: Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine