Review

Criminal law means of protection of criminal offenders cooperating with justice are considered. The purpose of this article is to consider the norms of specialized laws, sources of criminal and criminal procedural law of Ukraine, its international obligations as a comprehensive legal basis for ensuring the safety of certain types of participants in criminal proceedings, conditionally united within the category of «cooperating witnesses».

While collaborators with justice expose other persons involved in illegal activities, such cooperation takes place includes a risk of intimidation or retaliation. In order to reduce this risk to a rationally acceptable level, the legislation provides, in addition to protection measures (which technically complicate a possible massacre), also means designed to reduce the impact of violent interference. Such means are: procedural methods of overcoming the irreplaceability of participants in criminal proceedings during the trial (testimony «from other people’s words», judicial interrogation during the pre-trial investigation); criminal law protection of relations of participation in (criminal) proceedings.

However, unlike actual witnesses, «cooperating witnesses» enjoy a lower level of criminal protection. Their possible statuses (suspect, accused, convicted, person released from criminal responsibility, acquitted) are not mentioned in Art. 386 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (including threats, blackmail, bribery of a witness, a victim, an expert). Liability for intimidation, torture, murder, etc. of collaborators with justice has a general basis, in isolation from a special purpose (to induce false testimony, revenge, etc.) and generally outside the context of participation in criminal proceedings; there is no responsibility for their bribery.

Therefore, the work on the implementation of certain provisions of international treaties of Ukraine in the field of combating corruption and organized crime is not complete.

In addition, the criminal legal protection of participants in criminal proceedings against the illegal inaction of officials of bodies that provides security and against the disclosure of data on the content of relevant measures (Articles 380, 381 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine) is formulated in a way that assumes the existence of a cause-and-effect relationship complex of legally significant intermediate events. This puts the subjects of criminal liability in a case-by-case situation and is inconsistent with some recognized approaches in the science of criminal law (namely: theories of equivalence, direct causation).

Key words: witness, cooperating witness, security, participants in criminal proceedings, plea bargain, organized crime.