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The period of detention of the accused in a prisoner of war camp is not a pre-trial detention and is not counted as a sentence – the Criminal Court of Cassation of the Supreme Court.
This is the conclusion reached by the Criminal Court of Cassation of the Supreme Court following consideration of case No. 461/8598/23.
In this criminal proceeding, the prosecutor argued that the Сourt of Appeal had unreasonably counted the period of his detention in a prisoner of war camp as part of the sentence, since no preventive measure was imposed on the convict and he was not held in a pre-trial detention centre.
When cancelling the decision of the Court of Appeal and ordering a new trial in the court of appeal, the Supreme Court noted that the institutions for detention of persons in respect of whom detention was chosen as a preventive measure or who were subject to temporary or extradition arrest, as provided for in part 1 of Article 4 of the Law of Ukraine ‘On Pre-trial Detention’, are pre-trial detention centres of the State Criminal Executive Service of Ukraine, brig of the Military Law Enforcement Service in the Armed Forces of Ukraine. In certain cases, determined by the need to conduct investigative actions, these persons may be held in temporary detention facilities. Thus, the concept of pre-trial detention is clearly defined by the current legislation of Ukraine and does not provide for its arbitrary interpretation.
At the same time, the accused was not subjected to a pre-trial detention and was not held in a pre-trial detention centre or a temporary detention facility. He was captured by the Ukrainian Armed Forces during hostilities in the vicinity of Donetsk region and held in a prisoner of war camp in accordance with the Geneva Convention relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War of 12 August 1949. Such detention was not related to the convict’s criminal offences, and he was notified of suspicion while he was already in the POW camp.
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