Draft bill 19.

Summary.

The draft bill proposes to amend Article 488 of the Criminal Procedure Code (codigo procesal penal), which concerns the requirements for admitting complaints and criminal reports. According to its title, the amendment seeks to eliminate the requirement known as prueba idónea in investigations involving members of the National Assembly. Article 1 sets out a new version of Article 488 and specifies what these submissions must contain before their admissibility can be decided. It addresses both a person filing a complaint and a person making a criminal report, requiring each submission to be made in writing through a lawyer.

The proposed wording requires the identity details, address and signature of the complainant or reporting person and of that person's legal representative. It also requires identification details and an address for the person against whom the complaint is made. These particulars identify the person initiating the matter, the legal representative and the person named in the complaint or report. Article 488 presents them as requirements for admitting the written submission when it is examined by the authority responsible for assessing it.

As to the alleged conduct, the submission must give a precise, clear and detailed account of the alleged act, including where and when it occurred. The proposal further calls for any other information needed to establish the act and its legal classification, if that information can be provided. The availability of that additional information is expressly qualified by the words “if possible.” The listed requirements therefore cover both the persons involved and the factual account on which the complaint or criminal report is based.

The same article provides for outright rejection of a complaint or criminal report that fails to meet these requirements for assessment. It further provides that the full bench of the Supreme Court of Justice (Corte Suprema de Justicia) must issue the admissibility decision within a period of no more than ten days, counted from the corresponding assignment of the matter. Article 2 states that the proposed law amends Article 488 of the Criminal Procedure Code. Article 3 provides that the proposed law would take effect upon its promulgation.

The draft bill thus concerns the Supreme Court of Justice and criminal procedure under the Criminal Procedure Code. It would affect complainants, persons making criminal reports, their lawyers and persons named in submissions covered by the amended article. It could also be of interest to members of the National Assembly, given the title's reference to investigations involving them, and to legal practitioners involved in filing and assessing these submissions.