Witness

​Every person who may know any circumstances that may relate to the crime being investigated may be called to testify in pre-trial investigation or in court hearing. This way persons are acknowledged as having the status of a witness of crime.

Any witness who is called to appear must appear before the pre-trial investigation officer, the prosecutor, or the court on the date and at the time and place given, and to answer questions truthfully. Please note that family members and close relatives of a suspect or a defendant can decline giving testimonies at all or can decline answering certain questions posed. However, they are still obliged to appear before the pre-trial investigation officer, the prosecutor, or the court if summoned for a questioning.

On the day of the trial witnesses are not allowed to be in the courtroom before testifying, so they should wait in the witness waiting area and enter the courtroom only to give their evidence. The defendant may be removed from the courtroom while a witness is testifying, if the court considers that the defendant’s presence may deter the witness from telling the truth.

Witnesses are obliged to answer all the questions during their questioning. The laws consider it to be a crime to provide false statements at the court proceedings, i.e. everyone may be punished for not telling truth when knowing that he or she is lying. But nobody can blame a witness neither legally nor in any other way for not remembering some details relevant to the case.