Questioning or reading out the testimony of a minor in Russian criminal procedure

Abstract

The article examines the right of the court not to summon a minor victim or witness to a court session for questioning and the possibility of announcing his testimony, which was previously given during the preliminary investigation, if technical means of recording his production were used during the interrogation with the help of video recording or filming. This problem is investigated in the context of the relationship between the immediacy of the trial, the right of the accused to defense, and above all the right of the accused to personally interrogate witnesses against him, as well as the need to protect minor victims and witnesses, providing them with additional guarantees. The subject of the study is not only the norms of the Criminal Procedure Code of the Russian Federation, but also international legal acts. The article for the first time examines the legal positions of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation and the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation, which establish additional criteria for assessing the legality and validity of the disclosure of the testimony of minor victims and witnesses, including the conduct of a confrontation between these persons and the accused; the presence of legal representatives and a psychologist during the interrogation of minors; video recording of the interrogation at the preliminary investigation. The article formulates proposals for improving the norms of criminal procedure legislation, taking into account the balance of interests of the parties and the rights of minor participants in the process. In particular, it is proposed to conduct an interrogation of a minor in court in the absence of the defendant by his defender.