Justice Minister praises new Code of arbitration and judicial practice

Russian Justice Minister Yury Chaika has praised the new Code ofarbitration and judicial practice that became effective on September 1. TheMinister noted at a meeting with journalists that the soonest possibleintroduction of a new code was one of his requests at a meeting withPresident Vladimir Putin. Chaika explained that the new code would remove alot of questions in the practices of courts and court officers as well asdisputes between shareholders and joint-stock companies. In the opinion ofthe Justice Minister, the new code will help improve the efficiency ofcourt rulings.Commenting on another new code, the Code of criminal procedure, whichbecame effective on July 1, 2002, the Justice Minister reported that thenumber of people put into pre-trial incarceration decreased by 26,000 ascompared to the corresponding period last year, and the number of peopleput into pre-trial incarceration dropped by 53,000 since the beginning ofthis year. The minister believes this decrease will reach 120,000 people bythe end of 2002. Moreover, the number of people released from pre-trialincarceration, as they were acquitted, increased by eight times. "In theevent this tendency continues, we will manage to create normal livingconditions in Russian prisons," the minister stressed.According to information from the Justice Ministry, the number of detaineesin pre-trial incarceration prisons was 30 percent higher than the prisonswere meant for against 228 percent two years ago. The new Code of criminalprocedure will help reconstruct prisons and close old ones..