The lower house of the Russian parliament will consider on Wednesday a bill tightening rules regulating the employment of police officers, the first deputy State Duma speaker has said.
Russia has seen a number of high-profile police scandals over the past year, including the random shooting of several people in a supermarket by an off-duty police major, a video message posted on the Internet by an officer accusing superiors of corruption, and the death in pre-trial detention of a lawyer accused of conspiracy in a tax evasion case.
"The bill stipulates that not only citizens with previous convictions could not be employed by law enforcement bodies, which is provided for by the current law, but also those citizens, against whom criminal cases have been initiated, but then closed on the so-called non-rehabilitating basis," Oleg Morozov said.
This includes the expiry of the statute of limitations, the conciliation of parties, the amnesty, and the active repentance, he said.
Morozov said the bill, if adopted, would create an "additional filter" for those seeking to be employed by law enforcement agencies. The new rules would prevent those with a clouded reputation from becoming police officers. They would also allow dismissing those officers who do not meet new requirements.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev announced extensive Interior Ministry reforms in December 2009 following the police scandals that have overshadowed the reputation of Russian law enforcement bodies.
MOSCOW, May 5 (RIA Novosti)
