Information regarding the regulatory resolution of the Constitutional Court
(№ 24 of 20 July 2023)
The Constitutional Court considered a citizen's appeal concerning the verification of the conformity with paragraph 1 of Article 14 and paragraph 2 of Article 83 of the Constitution of part two of Article 80 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (hereinafter – the CCP).
According to this Article, an employee of an authorised subdivision of a law enforcement or special state body of the Republic of Kazakhstan may be engaged as a specialist to conduct research and give an opinion.
According to the subject of the appeal, the said article does not comply with the Constitution, as during his criminal prosecution the prosecution used as evidence the opinion of specialists, including current employees of the prosecutor's office.
The court of first instance recognised the said expert opinion as inadmissible evidence and handed down an acquittal. In a subsequent court of appeal, the acquittal verdict was overturned and the subject of the appeal was found guilty of the offence charged.
The Constitutional Court considers that it is the possession of special knowledge and special competence that is decisive for the involvement of a specialist. In the internal affairs agencies and other law enforcement and special State bodies, special investigations are carried out by staff of authorised units, while the procurator's office, on behalf of the State, exercises, within the limits and in the forms established by law, supreme supervision over the observance of the rule of law in the territory of the Republic and, in exercising supervision, the procurator's office does not substitute the functions of other State bodies.
The Constitutional Court found the second part of Article 80 of the CCP to be in conformity with the Constitution and interpreted that the involvement of an employee of an authorised subdivision of a law enforcement or special state body as a specialist is permissible, if this employee is a person not interested in the case, has special knowledge and special competence necessary to assist in the collection, examination, evaluation of evidence, and does not exercise supreme supervision over the observance of the rule of law in the territory of the Republic.