Expert Opinion and Witness Testimony as Key Evidence in Criminal Cases on Incitement to Suicide

Abstract

For the last five years Belarus and Russia have been among the top five countries for suicide indices. Their rise was caused by the activities of destructive groups in social networks. Experience shows that criminal proceedings for many criminal cases connected with suicides were terminated due to the absence of a crime. Thus, a thorough collection of evidence for this category of criminal cases becomes especially vital. When analyzing the court practice of incitement to suicide, the authors concluded that the most persuasive evidence is expert opinion and witness testimony. Besides, such written documents as medical cards (medical records) of potential suicides have high probative value in the investigation of criminal cases. Timely initiation and conduction of expertise could reveal signs of incitement to suicide, for example, using physical violence against the victim or a staged suicide. As the Criminal Procedure Code sometimes prescribes an expertise for a specific criminal case, such expert opinion will become a key source, a type of evidence that, at the level of a judge’s inner conviction, will have significant legal force when assessed together with other evidence. Thus, it is possible to discuss evidence that has key value, but, at the same time, it should be connected with other information on the criminal case, and together they should make up an integral crime narrative. The European Court of Human Rights introduced a concept of «key evidence» in the practice of criminal proceedings. The analysis of court practice allowed the authors to suggest that key evidence is information that acts as the main fact and is included in the subject matter of the case. This conclusion does not contradict the rule of free assessment of evidence: during such assessment, none of the evidence has predetermined, preconceived legal force. Only when the evidence is harmonized, it is possible to talk about a comprehensive investigation and an objective assessment of evidence.