This is the initial stage of the criminal process, during which a law enforcement agency, investigator, or prosecutor, within their own competence, carefully examines the information received about a committed or impending crime to determine whether there are legal grounds to initiate proceedings on the case. The beginning of the pre-trial investigation is marked by the registration of a statement, notification of a criminal offense in the Unified Register of Pre-trial Investigations, or the first urgent investigative action.
