On March 11, 2020, a meeting organized by IBC, discussed business proposals for judicial reform in Kyrgyzstan.

Members of the Expert Working Group on monitoring judicial reform, representatives of the President's Office, Business Ombudsman Institute, General Prosecutor's Office, Government’s Office, State Tax Service, and business community took part in discussions.

According to the appeals received by the IBC, the provisions of the new codes that entered into force on January 1, 2019, created a number of difficulties for entrepreneurs and need to be improved.

Here are some of the businesses' proposals:

• Harmonize the Criminal Code and the Code of Criminal Procedure, namely, when entrepreneurs repay their tax debts, there should be reason for the investigator to dismiss the case.

• Extend the time limit for considering economic crimes in the Unified Crime and Misconduct Register (UCMR).

• Consider options for dividing the limit of investigative actions into a truncated spectrum — during the verification and the full one — after verification.

• Narrow down the list of grounds for considering cases by non-core bodies.

• Harmonize the Tax Code and the Criminal Code according to the list of grounds for the transfer of STS materials to law enforcement agencies.

• To specify the corpus delicti in the Criminal Code in terms of its occurrence only by court order.

• Limit preventive measures related to detention of representatives of business entities.

Business proposals will be analyzed by the EWG and submitted for further consideration.

About UCMR

On January 1, 2019, as part of the judicial reform in the Kyrgyz Republic, the Unified Crime and Misconduct Register (UCMR) entered into force. It is an electronic database that contains information about the start of pre-trial proceedings, procedural actions, the progress of criminal cases or cases of misconduct, and applicants and participants in criminal proceedings.

The UCMR creation and implementation is entrusted to the General Prosecutor of the Kyrgyz Republic, which is also the holder of the registry.