Igor Trunov: compensation for damage by militants' relatives admits abusive schemes

The provisions of the bill that assumes compensation for damage caused by terrorists by their relatives can create schemes of abuse, since the bill provides for the "presumption of guilt", experts assert.

On September 26, Russian President Vladimir Putin has submitted this bill to the State Duma. In particular, it prescribes compensation for the damage caused as a result of a terror act "at the expense of a person who committed a terror act and at the expense of his/her close relatives."

The bill represents a strong basis to curb "the hot heads running to become terrorists," said Konstantin Sivkov, Doctor of Military Sciences and the First Vice-President of the Academy of Geopolitical Problems. He has emphasized that a similar scheme to combat terrorism is successfully used in Israel.

In his turn, the lawyer Igor Trunov believes that, although the bill does not violate the provisions of the Constitution, "it looks smooth only on paper," since schemes of abuse of the law emerge at once – in this case the bill provides for the "presumption of guilt", not the "presumption of innocence".

Trunov noted that in Russia there are already schemes in action, under which the money raised from selling the property confiscated within a criminal case does not reach the victims, as prescribed by the Vladimir Putin's law.