Kiev releases crime bosses from jail

About 49,000 convicts will be either set free or their terms will be reduced under the law on pre-trial detention terms (“Savchenko’s law”) in Ukraine in 2016, the National Police reported referring to the statistics of the Criminal Investigation Department.

In particular, almost 36,900 people are to be released, with 8,700 of them having been released already. “Thieves in law, criminal bosses, members of the organized criminal groups and organizations come under the given law along with those convicted for contract murders, for murder of two and more persons, and for other heavy crimes. This category of criminals are able to affect the operative situation in the country’s region,” the source reports.

According to Ukraine’s Police, 970 people who were previously set free under the given law committed crimes again. “The statistics of the crime types is as follows: homicide – 29, infliction of heavy bodily harm - 22, rapes – 19, thefts – 760, armed assaults – 84, robberies – 202, fraud – 44, illegal handling of weapons – 31, hooliganism – 22. Custody was chosen as a measure of restraint against 436 criminals. Besides, 68 people were convicted for violation of the administrative supervision and returned to prison,” the source reports.

Acting Police Head Vadim Troyan says the criminals that were set free under “Savchenko’s law” have already committed 30 murders and inflicting 25 heavy bodily harms with lethal outcome. In his words, 1,300 out of 8,700 criminals that were set free under the above law have already been detained for committed grave and extremely grievous crimes. “It is necessary to change the legislation,” Troyan said.

As EADaily reported earlier, the Supreme Rada passed the law on pre-trial detention on Nov 26 2015. Under the law, every day of the pretrial detention is being equalized to two days at prison, since the incarceration conditions at pre-trial detention facilities are worse than in correction facilities. The law is known as “Savchenko’s law” as it was submitted to the parliament by Nadezhda Savchenko.

Ukrainian Interior Minister Arsen Avakov has already said a serious outbreak of crime is expected in Ukraine as a consequence of “Savchenko’s law.”