MOSCOW. Feb 13 (Interfax) - The State Duma Committee on Constitutional Legislation and State Building has advised the lower house to deny support to the Russian Communist Party's idea of a parliamentary inquiry into the activity of former Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov.
"The possible parliamentary inquiry into the circumstances mentioned in the deputies' appeal needs to stop because, being a subject of investigation, they [the circumstances] may soon become a subject of court deliberations," says a decision of the committee adopted by a majority vote on Thursday.
The committee had earlier addressed the Russian Investigative Committee over the end of investigation of a series of the Defense Ministry's deals and the reference of those cases studied by the defendants to court.
"Strictly speaking in terms of the law on parliamentary inquiries, this subject is fully covered by the criminal case materials and an parliamentary inquiry has no prospect," State Duma Committee on Constitutional Legislation and State Building head Vladimir Pligin said at the committee meeting on Thursday.
Meanwhile, a member of the group, which initiated the parliamentary inquiry, State Duma deputy Yuri Sinelshchikov (the Communist Party) said that the procedures conducted by detectives could not hinder the parliamentary inquiry. "We are interested in one thing and the detectives are interested in another," Sinelshchikov said at the committee meeting.
Law enforcement veterans could have joined the ad hoc commission probing Serdyukov's activities, he said. In his words, some veterans have expressed their consent to do this job.
The Communist Party faction proposed a draft resolution initiating the parliamentary inquiry in the end of 2013.
"The goal of this inquiry is to expose causes and circumstances of the abuse, which has been discovered by the Investigative Committee, and to make such facts public. It is our task to assist in the elimination of these causes; probably, the human resources policy should be revised in the appointment of personnel to top-ranking positions," initiative co-author Anatoly Lokot said.
He said the initiative mentioned facts, which had been earlier highlighted by the media. "We do not have other reliable sources but these very facts have been reported by law enforcement authorities," Lokot said.
Some 103 deputies signed up to support the parliamentary inquiry, as demanded by the law.