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2023: The courts of first instance received 720.6 thousand criminal cases

In 2023, fewer criminal cases were received in Russian courts, while the percentage of convicts increased, and the number of acquittals remained at a low level. Such data became known in July 2024 from the analysis of statistics of the Judicial Department at the Supreme Court (Supreme Court) of the Russian Federation.

In 2023, the courts of first instance received 720.6 thousand criminal cases, which is 7.2% less than in 2022 (776.7 thousand) and 23% less than in 2014 (936.8 thousand). This trend has continued for the past decade.

source = Supreme Court of Russia

Despite the decline in the number of cases, the percentage of convicted persons rose to a record level over the past ten years. In 2023, trial courts convicted 78.45% of defendants, up 1.34 percentage points from 2022.

The number of acquittals remains extremely low. In 2023, only 0.25% of the defendants were acquitted, which practically does not differ from the 2022 figure (0.26%). For comparison, in 2014 this figure was 0.52%.

Experts assess the reasons for these trends differently. Leonid Golovko, head of the criminal process department of the Faculty of Law of Moscow State University, connects the reduction in the number of criminal cases with the efforts of the Supreme Court to humanize justice and the development of the practice of terminating cases at the pre-trial stages.

At the same time, Golovko explains the increase in the number of convicts by the fact that after weeding out less serious crimes, "there remains a more concentrated, dangerous crime," in respect of which mechanisms alternative to condemnation are rarely used.

The Federal Chamber of Lawyers believes that the identified trends indicate "stagnation in Russian legal proceedings and a decrease in its standards." However, the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation refrained from commenting, stating that "analysis of judicial statistics does not fall under the basic competence of the Supreme Court."^[1]

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