On Expanding the Range of Victims of Coercion To Testify

Building a state governed by the rule of law involves improving the mechanism for combating encroachments on justice ensuring observance of human and civil rights and freedoms. In changing criminology realities, in the focus of discussion are the ways to increase the effectiveness of guaranteesaimed to observe the rights and freedoms of persons involved in criminal proceedings, also with the help of criminal legal means. The paper presents the criminal law analysis of the signs of a victim of coercion to testify (Article 302 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). The subject of the study is the set of definitions used by the legislator to describe the signs of a victim of coercion to testify, as well as the provisions of criminal procedure legislation regulating the legal status of participants in criminal proceedings protected by the norm under consideration. The analysis of the stated problems is based on the legal views of the highest judicial authorities, with regard to historical, legal and doctrinal aspects. An interdisciplinary approach made it possible to identify the peculiarities of the legal status of persons classified by the legislator as victims of coercion to testify. The paper analyzes the legal status of the person whose criminal case was severed from the rest as a result of a plea bargain with him, as well as the person against whom proceedings to take compulsory measures of medical nature are conducted. The study focuses on the applicant, the eyewitness, the victim of the crime and parties of no procedural status but possessing important criminal information. The current criminal legislation does not provide for bringing the offenders to justice in case of undue influence against parties with an informal procedural status in the course of criminal proceedings. The paper substantiates the need to classify these parties as victims of coercion to testify. There is a discrepancy in the terminology of criminal and criminal procedure laws, and imbalance in providing punishment according to general and special rules. The undertaken research proposes to improve the legal and clerical condition of the current version of Article 302 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation in terms of clarifying the range of victims, and to review the penalty with regard to the general rule.