Review

In this article are discussed issues of evidence in criminal proceedings in case of death of the person about who are collected enough evidences about his involvement in committing the crime after his death, defined problems of legal regulation of proof in such cases, represented proposals for their elimination. Main purpose of this article is the analysis of Criminal Procedural Code, law of the European Court of Human Rights for the formation of proposals on improvement of certain provisions of the Criminal Procedure Code of 2012 relating to proof in proceedings with the presence of persons whose collected some data about committing their criminal offenses, but Suspected which are not reported due to their death.

Much attention given to on the procedural status of the suspect, his appearance in criminal proceedings. The article touches upon the issue of closing of criminal procedure when the person did not become the suspect due to objective reasons, but now investigators do have the proofs of his guilty. The article goes on to say that ability to close of criminal proceedings against a deceased person that at the time of death had not the status of a suspect or an accused, but about of whom investigative and prosecutorial agencies collected enough data to suspect a crime by the current Criminal Procedure Law of Ukraine not provided.

The author of the article reports that the importance signs of suspicions as assumption is that it can direct only to living persons. Articles 42, 276-278 CPC Ukraine, confirm this.  As pointed out by the European Court of Human Rights in criminal matters the provision of full, detailed information concerning the charges against a defendant, and consequently the legal characterization that the court might adopt in the matter, is an essential prerequisite for ensuring that the proceedings are fair. But obviously, in the case of physical death, there is no any possibility of personal realization of such safeguards enshrined at the highest international level.

The author of the article states that there are two ways of solving the problem: (A) to make the change in p. 1 p.5 of article 284 CPC of Ukraine and permit investigative and prosecutorial agencies to close the procedure in the case of death of  person that at that moment had not the status of a suspect or an accused, but about of whom investigative and prosecutorial agencies collected enough data to suspect a crime. (B) To add to CPC the new article 278-1 in such edition: “If the case provided for in paragraph three of part one of Article 276, sufficient evidence to suspect a person with a criminal offense have become available after the death of that person, a notice of the deceased suspect handed her close relatives explaining the right to choose counsel, whose participation in such proceedings will be mandatory and the right to demand the continuation of criminal proceedings for the rehabilitation of the deceased”.

Keywords: evidence, averment in criminal proceedings, suspect, closing of criminal case.