MOSCOW, June 29 (RIA Novosti) - Russian President
Dmitry Medvedev has signed into law a bill allowing formal plea
bargaining, the Kremlin press service said on Monday.
The bill, approved by the lower and upper houses of the
Russian parliament on June 5 and 17, respectively, establishes
that suspects who cooperate with an investigation may be
treated more leniently.
In particular, they may not be sentenced to more than 50%
of the statutory prison term for the crime with which they are
charged.
The arrangement will not, however, be applied to life
sentences.
Furthermore, suspects cooperating with an investigation
may be entitled to enter a witness protection program.
According to media reports, the Interior Ministry has
provided protection for about 700 witnesses in criminal cases
so far this year, even though another 5 million witnesses have
faced threats over their testimony.
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