Disclosure of Pre-Trail Investigation Data in Court when Imposing Measures of Restraint
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Abstract
The article deals with the issue which emerged in the practice of the European Court of Human Rights and which Lithuanian prosecutors are facing today when referring to court on questions concerning imposition of measures of restraint on a suspect. This problem is related to a very significant aspect of succeeding organisation of pre-trial investigation – confidentiality of present data of pre-trial investigation as well as implementation of the right to the due process of law and assurance of the right to defence for a suspect as established by laws.
By this article the author aspires to highlight the fact that international standards on protection of human rights as well as principles of criminal procedure require to ensure the suspect and his advocate the right to access to all documentation of the pre-trial investigation, which is presented by prosecutor as evidence seeking to support their claim for imposition of measures of restraint: custody, house arrest or charge to live separately from the victim.
Until the 2005 in the judicial practice of Lithuania the suspects and their advocates rather rarely executed the above mentioned right. However, the latter having been discussed by the Supreme Court of Lithuania in the decision No 50 „On the judicial practice on imposing custody, house arrest or extending custody terms”, from 30th of December 2004 the situation may change, prompting a great deal of new issues previously left aside.
Prosecutors, implementing and supervising pre-trial investigation, will be obliged to evaluate the prospects of revealing in court of pre-trial data to the suspect and his advocate and decide weather it is worth while to apply to court for imposition of custody, house arrest or charge to live separately from the victim.
When appealing to court for imposition of measures of restraint on a suspect, a prosecutor faces a necessity to sort out and provide the court with the documentation, which can be revealed to the suspect or his advocate and which is enough for the court to have substantial grounds for probability that the suspect is truly guilty of a crime.
Generally, the data of pre-trial investigation, neither entire material nor the data, grounding imposition of measures of restraint and presented in court, do not have neither procedural nor technical shape of a case. Process of acquaintance with this data is usually rather complicated, thus the recommendations on access of parties of judicial procedure to such data during the pre-trial investigation presented by the Attorney General on 18th April 2003 should be revised.
Despite problems mentioned above, valid legal acts provide enough conditions to implement the above mentioned right of suspect and his advocate as well as to preserve the confidentiality of certain pre-trial data. A prosecutor has to make a proper and timely decision as to which pre-trial data can be revealed to the suspect and his advocate at a certain moment of pre-trial investigation and which should not be revealed.
By this article the author aspires to highlight the fact that international standards on protection of human rights as well as principles of criminal procedure require to ensure the suspect and his advocate the right to access to all documentation of the pre-trial investigation, which is presented by prosecutor as evidence seeking to support their claim for imposition of measures of restraint: custody, house arrest or charge to live separately from the victim.
Until the 2005 in the judicial practice of Lithuania the suspects and their advocates rather rarely executed the above mentioned right. However, the latter having been discussed by the Supreme Court of Lithuania in the decision No 50 „On the judicial practice on imposing custody, house arrest or extending custody terms”, from 30th of December 2004 the situation may change, prompting a great deal of new issues previously left aside.
Prosecutors, implementing and supervising pre-trial investigation, will be obliged to evaluate the prospects of revealing in court of pre-trial data to the suspect and his advocate and decide weather it is worth while to apply to court for imposition of custody, house arrest or charge to live separately from the victim.
When appealing to court for imposition of measures of restraint on a suspect, a prosecutor faces a necessity to sort out and provide the court with the documentation, which can be revealed to the suspect or his advocate and which is enough for the court to have substantial grounds for probability that the suspect is truly guilty of a crime.
Generally, the data of pre-trial investigation, neither entire material nor the data, grounding imposition of measures of restraint and presented in court, do not have neither procedural nor technical shape of a case. Process of acquaintance with this data is usually rather complicated, thus the recommendations on access of parties of judicial procedure to such data during the pre-trial investigation presented by the Attorney General on 18th April 2003 should be revised.
Despite problems mentioned above, valid legal acts provide enough conditions to implement the above mentioned right of suspect and his advocate as well as to preserve the confidentiality of certain pre-trial data. A prosecutor has to make a proper and timely decision as to which pre-trial data can be revealed to the suspect and his advocate at a certain moment of pre-trial investigation and which should not be revealed.
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Authors retain copyright of their work, with first publication rights granted to the Association for Learning Technology.
Please see Copyright and Licence Agreement for further details.
