The purpose of the Article is to determine the criminal procedural safeguards for the rights of a suspect envisaged by the CPC of Ukraine in criminal proceeding during the special pre-trial investigation (in absentia), disclosing their content in order to establish deficiencies and inconformity of the provisions of the CPC of Ukraine, as well as to give recommendations on the means of their elimination. Methodology. The methodological tools have been chosen, taking into account the aim, specificity of the object and subject of the research. In the process of the research a system of the scientific knowledge tactics has been applied: formal logic (abstraction, analogy, deduction, induction, synthesis) in order to determine the content of the matter at issue; method of system analysis in order to define the directions of improvement of the criminal procedure law of Ukraine; theoretic – in the process of the research of scientific and academic methodological literature. Scientific novelty consists in determination of the criminal procedural safeguards for the rights of a suspect in trial in absentia defined by the CPC of Ukraine and provisions, which may not be deemed the safeguards for the rights of a suspect during the special pre-trial investigation in its entirety. Changes to the CPC of Ukraine with regard to the special pre-trial investigation (in absentia), which will strengthen the safeguards for the rights of a suspect and eliminate deficiencies of the criminal procedure law, have been proposed. Given the results of the conducted research the following conclusions have been drawn: 1) efficient additional safeguards for the rights of a suspect shall be deemed a compulsory element of the trial in absentia; 2) the CPC of Ukraine shall establish the safeguards for the rights of a suspect during the special pre-trial investigation and such safeguards shall include: obligation of the prosecutor to use all possibilities envisaged by the law in order to observe the rights of a suspect; prohibition of conducting the special pre-trial investigation against minor suspect; binding the prosecutor to prove to the investigating judge the fact that a suspect absconds from the investigative agencies and court; 3) certain provisions of the CPC of Ukraine may not be deemed the safeguards for the rights of a suspect during the special pre-trial investigation due to: failure to articulate the concept “international wanted list”, “availability of efficient evidence for suspicion of a person”, “suspect absconding from the investigative agencies and court in order to evade criminal liability”; impossibility to ensure by the established procedure notification of a person of the content of the notice of suspicion and of the necessity to appear before the pre-trial investigation body; absence of any additional mechanisms for the exercise by a suspect of his/her rights in trial in absentia as compared to the general procedure for conducting the criminal proceeding; 4) provisions of the CPC of Ukraine governing the special pre-trial investigation (in absentia) require changes