A/HRC/7/3/Add.2 page 103 538. Recommendation (c) stated: Much greater use should be made of existing provisions in the law for release of suspects on bail or on recognizance (signature), especially as regards suspected first-time non-violent offenders. Instructions or guidelines to this effect should be given by the Minister of the Interior to investigators from his Ministry; by the Procurator General to State, regional and local procuratorial investigators and supervisory prosecutors, and by the Minister of Justice and the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation to all judges handling criminal cases. 539. Recommendation (d) stated: To the extent that the law has been so framed or interpreted as to restrict provisions for release on bail or recognizance to prevent the release of first-time, non-violent suspected offenders as a normal measure, the relevant federal and republican laws should be amended to secure this objective. 540. Recommendation (e) stated: The draft Code of Criminal Procedure, giving effect to article 22 of the Constitution which places all deprivations of freedom under judicial authority, should be speedily adopted by the State Duma. 541. According to information received from non-governmental sources, disappearances staged by authorities continued in Chechnya throughout 2007, even if their number has considerably diminished. Between 3,000 and 5,000 persons remain disappeared. The Ministry of Interior’s Second Operational Investigative Bureau, commonly called ORB-2, located in Grozny and with branches in a number of Chechen districts, used to be notorious for unlawful detentions and ill-treatment of detainees. However, the situation appears to have improved starting from late July 2007. There have also been several cases in which the prosecutor’s office published the results of its investigations into alleged crimes of Chechen security structures. However, the majority of the disappearances remain unresolved. Recent decisions of the European Court for Human Rights confirm that very few cases have been resolved and that impunity remains quasi-total. In neighbouring Ingushetia excessive violence is regularly used in lawenforcement operations with impunity. 542. The Government informed that the competencies of the judiciary to review decisions about deprivation of liberty have been extended by the new Criminal Procedure Code. Article 108 provides that a court decides about the deprivation of liberty if a person is accused of a crime, which leads to prison terms of more than two years, if no other, non-custodial measures are available. In exceptional cases, defined in the same article, deprivation of liberty can also be used in cases of less than two years’ imprisonment. In 2006, 272,117 requests for deprivation of liberty by police officers and prosecutors were considered by courts, out of which 91.4 per cent were granted. In 2006, judges considered 870 requests for house arrest, of which 95.3 per cent were granted. Judges also considered 212,031 requests to prolong pre-t4rial detention, 98.3 per cent of which were granted. 543. By Law No. 87-FZ of 5 June 2007, which entered into force on 7 September 2007, the investigative and oversight functions of prosecutors were separated. Following