Author(s): Vasyl Topchiy, Oleksiy Oderii, Andriy Svintsytskiy, Nataliya Topchiy, Svitlana Zadereiko, Hennadii Bershov
The authors of the article have studied peculiarities of procedural provision of participation of a witness in criminal proceedings under the legislation of Ukraine, have analyzed the mechanism of their implementation, disadvantages have been determined and propositions for the improvement of this institution of criminal proceedings have been formulated. It has been determined that implementation of such measures is directed at full, complete and effective investigation of criminal offences, implementation of tasks of criminal proceedings and as a result, prosecuting guilty persons. It has been suggested that procedural provision of witnesses in Ukrainian criminal proceedings should be understood as a procedure determined by Ukrainian legislation, for involving a witness at various stages of criminal proceedings, court proceedings, etc., which is carried out in certain forms and by certain participants in criminal proceedings under the Criminal Procedural Code of Ukraine. It has been established that the legislative provisions on the implementation of certain measures of procedural provision of witness participation in criminal proceedings do not fully correspond to the practical realities. Analysis of judicial and investigative practice proves that there are frequent cases, when the court obliges the defense to provide the attendance of witnesses at the trial. In this regard we offer to elaborate practical recommendations for involving a witness in criminal proceedings, which will significantly simplify the process of calling a witness and eliminate existing contradictions between legislative provisions and practice of their implementation.