Part Two. Pre-Trial Proceedings

Section VIII. Preliminary Inquisition

Chapter 23. Bringing to Court the Accused. Bringing the Charge

Article 173. Interrogation of the Accused

1. The investigator shall interrogate the accused immediately after the charge is brought against him, while observing the demands of Item 9 of the fourth part of Article 47 and of the third part of Article 50 of the present Code.

2. At the beginning of the interrogation, the investigator shall find out whether the accused recognizes himself as being guilty, whether he wishes to give evidence on the merits of the charge brought against him and in what language. If the accused refuses to give evidence, the investigator shall make a corresponding entry into the protocol of his interrogation .

3. The interrogation shall be conducted in accordance with the procedure established by Article 189 of the present Code, with the exceptions laid down by the present Article.

4. A repeated interrogation of the accused on the same charge, if he has refused to give evidence at the first interrogation, may be conducted only at the request of the accused himself.


Article 174. Protocol of an Interrogation of the Accused

1. At every interrogation of the accused, the investigator shall compile a protocol with the observation of the demands of Article 190 of the present Code.

2. In the protocol of the first interrogation shall be pointed out the following data on the person of the accused:
• 1) surname, name and patronymic;
2) date and place of birth;
3) citizenship;
4) education;
5) family status and composition of his family;
6) place of work or studies, the kind of the occupations or the post;
7) place of residence;
8) existence of a previous criminal record;
9) other information of importance for the criminal case.

3. In the protocols of the subsequent interrogations, the data on the person of the accused, unless they have changed, may be reduced to an indication of his surname, name and patronymic .

Part Two. Pre-Trial Proceedings

Section VIII. Preliminary Inquisition

Chapter 26. Interrogation. Identification Line-Up. Identification. Verification of the Evidence

Article 187. Place and Time of an Interrogation

1. An interrogation shall be performed at the place of conducting the preliminary investigation. The investigator shall have the right, if he deems it necessary, to carry out an interrogation at the place of stay of the interrogated person.

2. An interrogation shall not be conducted for more than four hours running.

3. An interrogation shall be resumed after an interval of no less than one hour for a break and a meal; the total length of an interrogation in the course of one day shall not exceed eight hours.

4. If there exist some medical indications, the length of an interrogation shall be fixed on the ground of the doctor's conclusion.


Article 188. Procedure for the Summons to an Interrogation

1. The witness and the victim shall be summoned for an interrogation by a writ, in which it shall be pointed out who and in what capacity is summoned, to whom and at what address, the date and the hour appointed for the appearance at an interrogation, and the consequences of the failure to appear without a serious reason.

2. The writ shall be handed in to the person, who is summoned for an interrogation, against his signature, or it shall be forwarded to him with the use of the means of communication. If the person, summoned for an interrogation, is temporarily absent, the writ shall be given to an adult member of his family or shall be passed to the administration at the place of his work or, on the investigator's orders, to the other persons and organizations, who (which) shall be obliged to hand the writ over to the person, summoned for an interrogation.

3. The person, who is summoned for an interrogation, shall be obliged to come at the appointed time, or to notify the investigator in advance about the reasons for his being unable to come. If he fails to appear without any serious reasons, the person, summoned for an interrogation, may be brought forcibly, or towards him may be applied other measures of the procedural coercion, stipulated by Article 111 of the present Code.

4. A person who has not reached 16 years of age, shall be summoned for an interrogation through his legal representative or through the administration at the place of his work or studies. A different procedure for the summons for an interrogation shall be admissible only if this is called forth by the criminal case circumstances.

5. A serviceman shall be summoned for an interrogation through the command of the military unit.


Article 189. General Rules for Conducting an Interrogation

1. Before an interrogation, the investigator shall fulfil the demands, stipulated by the fifth part of Article 164 of the present Code. If the investigator begins to doubt whether the interrogated person has a good command of the language in which the proceedings on the criminal case is conducted, he shall be obliged to find out in what language the interrogated person would prefer to give evidence.

2. It is inadmissible to give leading the questions to the interrogated person. Apart from this the investigator is free to select any tactics of interrogation.

3. The person under interrogation shall have the right to make use of documents and notes.

4. At the initiative of the investigator or at the request of the interrogated person, in the course of the interrogation may be performed the photographing, the audio and video recording and the cinema shooting, the materials of which shall be kept in the criminal case and shall be sealed after completing the preliminary investigation.

5. If the witness has come to an interrogation with a lawyer he has invited for giving him legal advice, the lawyer shall be present at the interrogation, and shall enjoy the rights provided for by Part Two of Article 53 of this Code. After the end of the interrogation, the lawyer shall have the right to make statements on the violations of the rights and the lawful interests of the witness. These statements shall be entered into the protocol of the interrogation.


Article 190. Protocol of an Interrogation

1. The process and the results of an interrogation shall be reflected in a protocol to be compiled in conformity with Articles 166 and 167 of the present Code.

2. The testimony of the interrogated person shall be written down as rendered in the first person and, if possible, word for word. The questions and the answers to them shall be written down in that sequence, which was observed in the course of the interrogation. Into the protocol shall be entered all the questions, including those rejected by the investigator and those to which the interrogated person has refused to answer, with an indication of the reasons behind the rejection or the refusal.

3. If in the course of the interrogation, the witness was presented with demonstrative proof and documents, protocols of other investigative actions or materials of audio and/or video recording or cinema shooting of the investigative actions, the corresponding entry shall be made about this in the protocol of the interrogation. In the protocol shall also be reflected the evidence of the interrogated person, which he gave after this.

4. If in the course of the interrogation were carried out the photographing, the audio and/or video recording and the cinema shooting, the protocol shall also contain:
• 1) an entry on the performance of the photographing, the audio and/or video
recording and the cinema shooting;
2) information on the technical devices, on the conditions of the photographing, of the audio and/or video recording and of the cinema shooting, and on the fact of suspending the audio and/or video recording and the cinema shooting, as well as on the reason for, and on the duration of the suspension of these;
3) the applications of the interrogated person concerning the performance of the photographing, of the audio and/or video recording and of the cinema shooting;
4) the signatures of the interrogated person and of the investigator, certifying the correctness of the protocol.

5. The interrogated person shall have the right in the course of the interrogation to prepare maps, drafts, drawings and diagrams, which shall be enclosed to the protocol, about which the corresponding note shall be made in it.

6. After the end of the interrogation, the protocol shall be submitted to the interrogated person for reading, or it shall be read for him at his request by the investigator, about which the corresponding note shall be made in the protocol. The interrogated person's petition for an addition to be made to, and on the specification of the protocol shall by all means be satisfied.

7. In the protocol shall be named all the persons, who have participated in the interrogation. Every one of them shall be obliged to sign the protocol, as well as all the addenda and the specifications made in it.

8. The interrogated person shall certify the fact of getting acquainted with the evidence and the correctness of its recording with his signature, to be put at the end of the protocol. The interrogated person shall also sign every sheet of the protocol.

9. Refusal to sign the protocol of the interrogation or the impossibility to sign it on the part of the persons who have taken part in the interrogation, shall be certified in the order, established by Article 167 of the present Code.


Article 191. Specifics in an Interrogation of a Minor Victim or Witness

1. The interrogation of a victim or witness, aged less than fourteen years of age, and at the investigator's discretion also an interrogation of the victim or of the witness, aged from fourteen to eighteen years of age, shall be conducted with the participation of a pedagogue. At the interrogation of a minor victim or witness his legal representative shall also have the right to attend.

2. Victims and witnesses, aged less than sixteen years, shall not be warned about their liability for refusal to give evidence and for giving a deliberately false evidence. When explaining to the said victims and witnesses their procedural rights, stipulated by Articles 42 and 56 of the present Code, respectively, the necessity to tell the truth shall be pointed out to them .