Legal regulations of interrogation in conditions of maritime

Abstract

The article examines the legal regulation of interrogation in martial law. During the statement of the problem it is noted that the imperfect legal regulation of interrogation in peacetime causes an increase in problematic issues of regulatory regulation of this procedural action in martial law. In the course of presenting the main material, the expediency of regulating during the martial law regime the exclusive possibility of the court’s departure from the principle of immediacy of the examination of personal testimony is emphasized. At the same time, the legal regulation of written protocols of interrogation at the stage of pre-trial investigation with the warning of individual participants about criminal liability should be left. Attention is drawn to the fact that the decision to recognize pre-trial testimony as evidence by a court cannot be made formally only in view of the imposition of martial law throughout the country. The court must assess the specific circumstances of the proceedings, the activity of hostilities in a particular area, the level of danger to the participants in criminal proceedings, and so on. It is stated that the legal regulation of international standards in extreme situations allows the recognition as evidence of pre-trial testimony recorded in the interrogation records at the stage of pre-trial investigation. It is concluded that during the martial law regime the legal regulation of interrogation should be carried out in such a way that in exceptional cases the court has the opportunity to deviate from the principle of immediacy of judicial examination of testimony. As a general rule, such cases should provide for the observance of appropriate procedural guarantees of human rights and freedoms in the course of obtaining and recording testimony at the stage of pre-trial investigation. Although in the most extreme situations of criminal proceedings (illness, death, threat of danger, etc.) the court should be able to accept as evidence the results of pre-trial interrogations outside the observance of procedural guarantees. It is concluded that the current legal regulation of interrogation during martial law generally corresponds to the circumstances of the relevant legal regime. At the same time, it is emphasized that the criminal procedural norms regarding the legal regulation of interrogation during the martial law regime need to be improved in relation to the regulation of the exclusive possibility of the court to recognize the results of pre-trial interrogations as evidence in criminal proceedings.