Implementation of the Institute for the Investigation of Military Criminal Offenses by the State Bureau of Investigations and the Future Military Police

Abstract

At all stages of Ukraine’s development, the system of investigation of criminal offenses was one of the attributes of ensuring the rule of law in the state. Among this, the system of investigations of military criminal offenses in the Armed Forces of Ukraine (hereinafter – the AF of Ukraine) is not an exception. It should be noted that there is an urgent need to reform such a major military law enforcement agency as the Military Law Enforcement Service of the AF of Ukraine, which does not meet modern NATO standards, the member of which Ukraine plans to become in the nearest future, into a new Military Police that will investigate military criminal offenses together with the State Bureau of Investigations. To this date, in connection with the possibility of creating a Military Police in Ukraine we should: adopt amendments to the Criminal Code of Ukraine, which provide for the classification of certain crimes under Articles 402, 403, 405, 406, 407, 408, 409, etc., to criminal offenses; to determine the powers of the Military Police to conduct a pre-trial investigation in the form of investigation of criminal offenses committed by servicemen, civil servants of military formations, and to leave the powers to investigate war crimes and crimes in the military sphere (the latter include various encroachments on the military-industrial complex) for the State Bureau of Investigations; to refer to the jurisdiction of the Military Police certain components of criminal offenses, in addition to Article 422 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, committed by servicemen, sergeants and junior officers, and civil servants of military formations, whose positions belong to “B” category. Key words: State Bureau of Investigation, Military Police, Military Law Enforcement Service of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, military criminal offenses, NATO, military criminal justice.