INTERNATIONAL EXPERIENCE IN ENSURING THE SAFETY OF WITNESSES IN CRIMINAL PROCEEDINGS

Abstract

The article deals with problematic aspects of protecting the safety of a witness as a person participating in criminal proceedings. The state of regulatory protection of the witness’s safety was highlighted using a comparative legal analysis of national legislation with the legislation of some foreign countries. The prospects for the implementation of certain aspects of foreign legislation in the legislative acts of the national legal system have been clarified. It is determined that the legislation of the Republic of Austria, namely Federal Law No. 526, clearly defines the range of witnesses that can be included in the witness protection program. Under the Act, witnesses are persons who are at risk because they have substantial information about organized crime offences, crimes against the State system, drug trafficking offences and some other serious crimes. It is stated that the issue of protecting participants in criminal proceedings from illegal physical or mental impact is quite relevant today. One of the main areas of detection, prevention, disclosure, investigation and prevention of crimes is a properly conducted investigation of a criminal offense. Undoubtedly, in the process of investigating a crime by law enforcement agencies, it is difficult to overestimate the significance of the testimony of witnesses to the crime. However, a significant number of witnesses conceal the facts of the crime and do not contact the relevant law enforcement agencies or courts. This leads to an increase in the index of latency of crimes, impunity of criminals, violation of the normal rhythm of civil society. In most foreign countries, a wide variety of State-guaranteed measures are applied to persons who are the bearers of certain legally relevant information to ensure their presence as a witness and their continued safe existence. The implementation of such protection has become a significant need for Ukrainian society. Witness protection programmes in developed countries provide not only physical protection, but also moral and material assistance to victims, witnesses and other criminal actors. It is noted that now in Ukraine there is no comprehensive system for ensuring the protection of witnesses and victims in criminal proceedings. The basis of legal regulation in this area is the Law of Ukraine “On Ensuring the Safety of Persons Participating in Criminal Proceedings.” Austrian security measures are similar to European states: moving a witness to a safe zone, moving to another place of residence (another city or even another state); creation of a new “history” of human life (legend), design of new documents; security guard; modification of identity documents; Linking new documents to existing databases Tracking passwords and emails and logins provided by the customer social adaptation to a new place of residence; psychological assistance to the victim (witness), etc. It was found that French law, in order to maximize the protection of witnesses, allows even the complete anonymity of personal testimony. This is a fairly effective incentive for a person to give such evidence and significantly gives law enforcement agencies the opportunity to simplify the procedure for protecting witnesses. It was concluded that the concept of witness and victim protection should include the provision of all three components. However, the concepts of security in law and the theory of criminal procedure are not identical, while in theory there is no generally accepted definition of the concept of “security.”