Diskusiniai liudytojo intereso egzistavimo baudžiamajame procese aspektai

LTStraipsnyje analizuojamas liudytojo intereso baudžiamajame procese egzistavimo klausimas, glaudžiai susijęs su šio intereso ištakomis ir liudytojo interesų pobūdžiu. Autorius pirmiausia kelia klausimą, ar apskritai baudžiamajame procese liudytojas gali būti kuo nors suinteresuotas, jeigu taip - ar tai yra natūralu, ar vis dėlto tai neatitinka liudytojo teisinės padėties procese idėjos, jog šis proceso subjektas turi būti neutralus. Liudytojo vaidmens baudžiamojoje byloje, jo teisinio statuso analizė rodo, kad vis dėlto šis subjektas turi siekį ginti savo padėtį, t. y. procesines teises bei pareigas, todėl nekalbėjimas apie liudytojo interesus prilygtų liudytojo, kaip įrodinėjimo priemonės, o ne tikslo baudžiamajame procese vertinimui. Liudytojo suinteresuotumą savo teisine padėtimi byloje, o kartais ir bylos baigtimi gali lemti jo statuso ypatumai, bylos faktinės aplinkybės, šio subjekto santykiai su kitais procese dalyvaujančiais subjektais. [Iš leidinio]Reikšminiai žodžiai: Baudžiamojo proceso teisė; Liudytojo interesas; žmogaus teisės ir laisvės; Criminal procedure law; witness' interest; Human rights and freedoms.

ENInterest is one of the main sociological and legal categories, which help to discover relation between objective external tendencies and activities of a man. A witness who has procedural rights and obligations is allowed to protect these rights and obligations respectively and thus a witness begins to have an interest in criminal procedure. Two types of interests of witness could be accordingly distinguished, i.e. personal interest and legal interest. The analysis of witness's interest in criminal cases allows to affirm that the procedural interests of a witness in criminal procedure may be divided into those related to the outcome of the case and those related to a person's legal position in a definite criminal suit. Interest in the outcome of the case means that the person associates his or her needs with the definitive decision in the case. In other words, this interest appears when a prospective decision of a court or another authorized subject may influence the character of legal relations, rights and duties of a person. This issue is especially widely analyzed in civil procedure law and science. The interest in the outcome of the case is usually divided to two categories - material-legal interests and procedurallegal interests. Material-legal interests, i.e. social needs are protected by laws, without attributing to their holders subjective material rights, but granting them the right to apply for judicial or another kind of legal assistance.On the other hand, procedurallegal interest is an independent legal phenomenon, which is fulfilled through activities of legal institutions. The procedural-legal interest means the need of a person to initiate the procedure and to participate in this procedure. As a rule, a witness is interested in his/her legal position in criminal procedure. The objective to protect own procedural rights and to guarantee proper environment to perform the duties defines the witness's legal interest in relation to his/her procedural status. Any hindrance, which leads to an impossibility to implement the rights or duties or to an insufficient implementation of them, determines the need to ensure a secure environment or existence. In this way, the source of appearance of this interest is defined, i.e. procedural relations of the witness. The legal interest in procedural status differs from the interest in the outcome of the case; the witness is not concerned with the definitive decision of the case, because it does not influence his/her rights and interests in any way (except for the condition provided for in Article 82 (2) of the CPC). In this case, the secure procedural status is related to an implementation of the procedural role of the witness. The witness, like any other subject of the procedure, is interested in defending his rights under Article 81 of the CPC, and other rights established in the criminal procedure law, or to put it in another way - in requiring possibilities to appropriately perform his/her procedural duties that legalize the above mentioned procedural rights. [From the publication]