On August 15, 1936, a short announcement titled “In the USSR Procuracy” appeared in Izvestia, in the upper right-hand comer of the second page. In Izvestia an article appeared under the headline "Personal Inviolability"; judges and procurators, it said, must "investigate first and then arrest"; "sooner or later," it asserted, "the question of allowing defense counsel into the preliminary investigation must be raised"; the basic rights of a person held in custody. The period of investigation would take up to ten days; the criminal charge was issued one day before judicial proceedings were to begin, and the “parties” to the case—procurator and defense lawyer—were excluded from the trial; the cassationary complaint and even the plea for mercy were abolished—just immediate execution by shooting.