The place of a witness in criminal proceedings in Ukraine

The article examines the place and role of a witness in the criminal procedure of Ukraine. It is established that a witness plays an extremely important role in ensuring a prompt, complete and impartial investigation. By taking an active position, witnesses can provide significant assistance in improving the effectiveness of such actions. The «power» of a witness lies in the «strength» of his or her testimony, in the ability to influence a decision in favor of the party involved in the case. In different time periods, the «power» of witness testimony, which directly depended on the witness’s place in society, changed, it had different explanations and legislative regulation. This dependence is so deeply rooted in social psychology that it still has a significant impact on judicial practice. The procedural activity of a witness in criminal proceedings is a prerequisite for clarifying all the circumstances of a criminal offense during the pre-trial investigation and for the court to make a lawful, reasonable and fair judgment. From the theoretical point of view, a witness belongs to the group of subjects of criminal procedure who facilitate the criminal justice process. The author offers her own definition of the category «witness» which should be contained in Part 1 of Article 65 of the CPC of Ukraine: «A witness is a person who may be aware of any information about the circumstances relevant to criminal proceedings and subject to proof, and who is involved in the process as a witness in accordance with the procedure established by law». Thus, not every person who knows or may know the circumstances to be proved in criminal proceedings is a witness, but only the one who is called as a witness to testify. The study proves that witnesses participate not only in interrogation; they may also participate in other investigative (detective) actions while maintaining their procedural status.