Witness in the Criminal Process in Comparative Aspect

Ilirjan Hysa
Judge in the Court General Jurisdiction of Berat ,“Aleksander Moisiu” University of Durres Faculty of Political Sciences and Law

Abstract

The proof with witnesses, always constitutes interest for the parties in a criminal court process, especially this for investigation bodies of in the detection of the criminal offense, identification of the author and subsequently for taking criminal responsibility of his and putting before justice to judge him. The proof with witnesses represents great importance also for the defendant and his defending attorney, playing an important role in the defense strategy and opposse the accusation raised by the prosecution. The purpose of this paper is to get acquainted proof with witnesses, who are the qualities that a witness should have in a criminal process, the role and manner of obtaining this evidence, witness protection and familiarity with special techniques of of receiving to testify and what matters in the end is the position that there is evidence with a witness in the final decision that gives by the court for the defendant. In this paper initially the meaning of the witness will be addressed in a lawsuit and history in periods different after 1928 until today, analyzing in different historical periods the role of the witness in a criminal proces, seen in the historical context where and the criminal legislation of the Albanian state has changed to corresponding to the legislation during the reign of Zog I. In this paper a comparison of legislation is also addressed a of domestic and western legislation as far as the witness is concerned and his role in a criminal trial that at the stage of investigation and then trial considering notably, French and Italian legislation, taking in consideration and connection that our procedural law has with these two legislations. In this paper will be treated the first procedural phase in which testimony is taken during the preliminary investigation, identifying two main moment where initially relates to the upon detection of the offense and the author after the event occurred, these actions committed by judicial police officers and the next stage of the preliminary investigation is the actions of the prosecutor or the procedur body. In the main of the part of the paper has been analyzed exhaustively the new changes in the criminal procedure on proof with witnesses, also are treated the procedural means that protect the witness physically and the content of the evidence by analyzing in particular the techniques of taking testify, the importance of implementing these techniques and the problems that appear in their implementation in connection with a due process of law.

Presentation