| 15 March 2007 On 7 March 2007, a meeting of the Ukrainian Government approved a draft law providing the State Border Service with the right to institute inquiries in cases when deliberately forged documents are used to cross the state border. This will in turn expedite timely referral of persons committing such an offense to internal affairs’ authorities for judicial inquiry. Such provisions are envisaged in the draft Law on Amending Article 101 of the Criminal Code Procedure of Ukraine. The draft was prepared by the Administration of the State Border Service in accordance with the Concept of Development of the State Border Service for the period until 2015. The need to adopt such amendments is stipulated by the fact that the Ukrainian legislation provides no criminal liability for the persons guilty of using deliberately forged documents to illegally cross the state border. According to legislation in force, if deliberately forged documents are found the cases are referred to internal affairs’ authorities without initiating a criminal case. The person guilty of having committed a criminal act is released from administrative detention as soon as a court holds the person administratively liable. Having broad possibilities to establish facts of using forged documents, state border protection bodies have no authority to initiate a criminal case and institute an inquiry in such a situation. In 2006, 788 persons have been found to have committed acts containing signs of an offence related to using deliberately forged documents.
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