Brother for brother: the court returned the driver's license agreed by a relative
Incorrect identification of the driver suspected of violating traffic regulations is the basis for termination of the administrative case. This is the conclusion reached by the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation. As a result, the driver's license was returned to the driver, whose name the real traffic violator was hiding behind. The details are in the Izvestia article.
"9 by 12 photo"
In the spring of 2024, in the Altai Territory, traffic police stopped the driver, suspecting him of driving drunk. He did not have any documents with him, so the identity of the motorist, who introduced himself as I.I. Ivanov (full name changed. — Izvestia), the police established from his words, comparing his appearance with a photo in the electronic database of the State Traffic Inspectorate. The examination showed that the driver was intoxicated. The magistrate of the Sovetsky district of Novosibirsk found citizen Ivanov I.I. guilty of traffic violations, deprived him of his driver's license for a year and a half and imposed a fine of 30 thousand rubles.
At the same time, as follows from the case materials, Ivanov I.I. himself stated during the court session in the magistrate's court, as well as during further hearings in the Novosibirsk District Court and the Eighth Court of Cassation of General Jurisdiction that he had not committed this offense, since he was in another city at that time, and his cousin was driving the car. who introduced himself by his name. However, all three judicial instances did not pay attention to these arguments, even though in the magistrate's court the traffic inspectors who processed the administrative materials could not reliably identify the motorist they had stopped in Ivanovo.
The Prosecutor's office is not asleep
It was not I.I. Ivanov, who was deprived of his rights, who appealed to the Supreme Court (Supreme Court of the Russian Federation) — the Deputy Prosecutor General of Russia sent a protest against the decisions of the courts to the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation. The fact is that in the framework of the criminal case initiated against police officers under Part 1 of Article 293 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation "Negligence", the real driver, who was driving drunk, testified that he introduced himself to traffic police inspectors as Ivanov I.I., because he had previously been caught driving while intoxicated and tried to to avoid repeated prosecution.
In addition, the testimony of Ivanov I.I. himself, who declared his innocence of the alleged offense, was confirmed by his polygraph test. The handwriting forensic examination also established that the handwritten notes and signatures made in the administrative materials allegedly on behalf of Ivanov I.I. were actually made by another person.
The trial is underway
After reviewing the case materials and the protest of the Deputy Prosecutor General of Russia, the Supreme Court recognized the significant violations committed by the lower courts. The documents and other facts testify to the illegality of the conclusions about the commission of an administrative offense by I.I. Ivanov, the judge of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation noted.
"The issue of establishing the identity of the offender is of fundamental importance for a comprehensive, complete and objective examination of the case and timely bringing the perpetrator to administrative responsibility. Establishing guilt involves proving not only the guilt of the subject, but also his direct involvement in the commission of an unlawful act," the Supreme Court said in a ruling.
Since irremediable doubts about the guilt of a person are interpreted in favor of this person, and the absence of an administrative offense is one of the circumstances in which proceedings on an administrative offense cannot be initiated, and the proceedings initiated are subject to termination, the Supreme Court decided to satisfy the protest of the Deputy Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation, reverse the decisions of the lower courts and terminate the proceedings in this case.
The identity has not been established
The Supreme Court made an absolutely correct and fair decision, according to Sergey Radko, a lawyer for the Freedom of Choice movement. Ivanov suffered due to gross mistakes made by both traffic police and judges of all three instances, he noted.
— It is unclear why, in violation of the established procedure, the police did not find out the identity of the driver, who did not provide them with documents, but compiled administrative materials based only on his statement and checking his appearance with a photo in the database. Even in the case of more minor offenses, such as drinking alcohol in a public place, police officers without unnecessary conversation deliver citizens who do not have documents with them to the police department for identification. Therefore, the initiation of a criminal case against traffic police officers under the article "Negligence" is fully justified. Moreover, it was the investigation into this criminal case that served as the basis for the Supreme Court's review of the administrative offense case," Sergei Radko told Izvestia.
The lawyer also has questions about the decisions of the courts, which considered it permissible to identify the person from the photo and did not listen to the arguments of the motorist, whom the traffic police could not even reliably identify.
The traffic police did not fulfill one of the main requirements necessary to bring a person to administrative responsibility — they did not properly establish the identity of the person driving the car. And the courts, in turn, recognized such "identification" based on photos in the database as acceptable, said Igor Morzharetto, a member of the Presidium of the Public Council under the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation.
"As a result, the Supreme Court had to deal with an essentially elementary issue," he concluded.
Maxim Kadakov, the editor-in-chief of Za Rulem magazine, considers the situation in which the driver does not provide any documents at all, and his identity is established by the police only with his words, unacceptable.
— This, of course, is a blatant disgrace. Therefore, it is necessary to punish the employees who committed such violations of procedural actions, and, accordingly, the person who introduced himself by someone else's name. In theory, they should have detained him until his identity was clarified, established his identity, and only then properly formalized the offense he committed," the editor—in-chief of Za Rulem believes.
Perhaps the traffic police acted with the best of intentions, trying to quickly exclude an intoxicated driver from traffic, said Valery Soldunov, a member of the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation, chairman of the All-Russian Society of Motorists. However, this does not justify the serious violations of the established order that they committed in doing so.
— The traffic police inspectors first had to take the driver, who did not have any documents with him, to the police department in order to establish his identity not "from words", but on the basis of reliable information. Then the drunk motorist himself would have suffered the punishment he deserved, and the innocent driver would not have suffered," Valery Soldunov emphasized.
The fine will be refunded, no nerves
Since the decision of the Supreme Court overturned the decisions of the lower instances, and the proceedings in the case were terminated, Ivanov I.I. the state must return the fine he paid in the amount of 30 thousand rubles, Sergei Radko notes. As for the deprivation of rights, he can only expect compensation if he proves that he suffered real damage as a result — he lost his job, was transferred to a lower-paying position, etc., the lawyer notes.
— Theoretically, a driver who has been deprived of his license due to a judicial error can demand compensation for moral damage from the state. But, as practice shows, payments for such claims, filed even in the framework of a criminal case, are minimal. At best, we are talking about 10-15 thousand rubles," Sergei Radko said.
Переведено сервисом «Яндекс Переводчик»
