ATTACHMENT 4

Normative framework of the Republic of Macedonia constitutes procedural and non - procedural measures for protection of victims, witnesses and collaborators of justice .

Introduction of the procedural measures for protection of the witness, justice collaborators and victims is the important novelty in the amendments of Criminal Procedural Code in 2004.

Namely, Article 293 parapgaph 1 of the Law stipulates that the public prosecutor, or the investigative judge or the president of the council during the procedure shall undertake measures and activities in order to secure the effective protection of witnesses justice collaborators and victims if in case they will appear as witnesses in the procedure, at any time when they are endanger of being frightened, threatened with revenge or there is danger upon their lives or physical integrity or when there is need of their protection.

The protection of the persons mentioned in paragraph 1 of this article shall be carried out on special manner of questioning and attendance in the procedure.

The provision relates to the protection of witniesses is third paragpaph of Article 293 which regulates the institute of anonimys witness. Namely, in the cases of paragraph (1) of this article, the witness will be questioned only in the presence of the public prosecutor and the investigative judge or the president of the council, on the place which can guarantee the protection of his identity, except in the cases when upon the decision of the, with consent of the witness, the council will decide to perform the hearing on different way trough the court or with use of other technical equipment for communication and other appropriate means for communication. Transcript of the minutes with the statement of the witness, without witness signature, shall be delivered to the accused and his lawyer, who make questions to the witness via court.

Non-procedural measures are defined in the Law on Witness Protection. This law regulates the procedure and conditions for providing witness protection and assistance to the witnesses, defines the measures for protection and establishes Council for witness protection and Department for witness protection. The provisions of this law are also applied to collaborators to justice, victims who appear in capacity of witnesses, as well as to close persons of the witnesses, collaborators to justice and victims who appear in capacity of witnesses.

In accordance with Article 2 – Meaning of the terms, the terms:

“Victim who appears in capacity of a witness” is any person whose personal or property right is damaged or endangered by the committed criminal act, who possesses information relevant to the criminal procedure, which if released, his/her life, health, freedom, physical integrity or property of bigger amount would be exposed to danger, but has agreed to cooperate with the justice system, by giving a statement appearing in capacity of witness in the criminal procedure.

“Close person” is:

spouse and non-marital partner of the witness, collaborator to justice and the victim which appears in the capacity of witness,

relatives of the witness, collaborator to justice and the victim which appears in the capacity of witness by blood filiations in straight line, the relatives in side line till the third level, as well as the in-laws relatives till second level;

foster child and foster parent of the witness, collaborators to justice and the victim which appears in the capacity of witness and

other person that the witness, collaborator to justice and the victim which appears in capacity of witness considers as close person and for whom he/she asks to be involved in the program for protection.

Article 3 of the Law on Witness Protection regulates the circumstances under which the Law may be applied. Namely, this law is applied if the proving of the criminal act would be accompanied with extreme difficulties or could not be conducted without a statement of a person, which, due to the possible danger of being exposed of intimidation, threatening with revenge or danger upon the life, health, freedom, physical integrity or property of bigger amount, does not agree, to give statement in the capacity of witness for the following crimes:

against the state

against the humanity and the international law,

organized crime and

for which the Criminal Code stipulates sentence of at least 4 years’ imprisonment

All of the non-procedural measures defined in the Law on Witness Protection can be undertaken before, during and after criminal procedure

Conditions for undertaking the protection measures are defined by the Law as criteria that should be taken into account while deciding for involvement in the Program. Namely, those are the following criteria:

the importance of the information possessed by the person whose protection is proposed concerning the committed crime, its perpetrator and other important circumstances, i.e. data and information pertinent for the criminal procedure which are necessary and essential for the proving of the criminal act,

information important for the criminal procedure possessed by the persons whose protection is proposed, which can not be obtained in other way,

seriousness of the intimidation,

the will of the person whose protection is proposed to cooperate with the judicial bodies and in the process of conducting the measures for protection with the Department.

The law on Witness Protection defines urgent measures as well as procedure for their implementation. As urgent measures according the Law can be used:

keeping the secrecy of the identity;

providing personal protection; and

change of the place of living or residing.

If the Public Prosecutor of the Republic of Macedonia assesses that the life, health, freedom, physical integrity or property in larger scope of the witness, collaborator of justice, the victim in capacity of witness, and their close persons are exposed to a serious danger that can not be removed with the proper measures for protection provided from the Police, simultaneously with the proposal for involvement into the Program shall notify the Department for the need of application of urgent measures. After the receipt of the mentioned notification, the Department in a time period of 24 hours shall enact a decision for their implementation, shall undertake all the measures and for that shall notify the Council and the Public Prosecutor of Republic of Macedonia. Before undertaking urgent measures, the Head of the Department shall obtain written consent from the person for whom the urgent measures are to be applied. The urgent measures last until the Council enacts a decision for involvement of the person in the Program, but at most 3 months from the day of their undertaking.

After bringing the decision for implementation of the urgent measures and determination of the type of measures, the Head of the Department will ask the person to whom the urgent measures are applied, to take a medical examination and to fill out questionnaire (personal data, property, obligations towards third parties and other information)

According to The Law on Witness Protection there are four protection measures:

keeping the confidentiality of the identity,

providing personal protection,

change of the place of living or residing and

change of the identity.

The measures for protection determined in article 26 of this law are enforced by the Department. If the Department considers that it is necessary to apply the “change of identity” measure, it submits a request to the Council for application of this measure.

Keeping the confidentiality of the identity

The measure keeping the confidentiality of the identity encompasses processing and use of personal documents with temporarily altered personal data of the protected person, as well as processing and use of documents for ownership of certain estate of the protected person. The enforcement of the this measure does not mean actual change of personal and property data of the protected person in the regular records of the authorized bodies. The protected person can use the documents for making certain agreements and other legal matters with third persons only with previous consent from the Department. If the Department does not give this consent, the protected person can, upon the approval from the Department, determine his proxy who shall then use the person’s real name and data and on his/her behalf and account conclude the agreement or the other legal matters.

Providing personal protection

The measure for protection “providing personal protection” is consisted of operative, physical and technical protection of the protected person with aim to prevent the threatening of his/her life, health, freedom, physical integrity or property of bigger amount.

Change of the place of living or residing

The measure for protection “change of the place of living, i.e. residing” of the protected person is realized through a temporary or permanent change of his/her place of living, i.e. residing with another place of living, i.e. residing, determined by the Department. It can be applied on the territory of the Republic of Macedonia or outside of its territory, in accordance with the ratified international agreements. Collaborator of justice serving the sentence of imprisonment in Republic of Macedonia and to whom the measure for protection “change of the place of living, i.e. residing” is determined, can be displaced in another country for serving the sentence of imprisonment, in accordance with a ratified international agreement.

Change of identity

The measure for protection “change of the identity” is consisted of partial or complete change of the personal data of the protected person. In implementing this measure, activities for change of the physical characteristics of the protected person can be undertaken. The personal data entered into the new documents can not be the same with the data of some other person. Receiving new identity does not have influence on the status and other rights and obligations of the protected person. After the expiry of the measure for protection “change of the identity”, the protected person may choose wheather he/she will keep the new identity in future. The protected person cannot restore his authentic identity if the change of the identity has significantly influenced on the status of a third person (marriage, paternity, maternity etc.). Upon written permission of the Department, and in accordance with the guidelines for keeping the confidentiality and providing the complete security of the protected person, he/she can participate with his authentic personal data in an official procedure where the use of the personal authentic data is inevitable. The original documents for the identity of the protected person are kept in the Department.

If a decision for appliance of the measure “change of identity” is made, the Department will ask the person suggested for admittance to the Program, before signing the agreement, to fulfill his due obligations towards third parties. If the person suggested for admittance to the Program does not fulfill the obligations, the measure for protection “change of identity” will not be applied until the due obligations towards the third parties are not fulfilled. In case when after signing the agreement, the Department receives information for an obligation that occurred when the protected person had had the authentic identity, the Department will ask the protected person to fulfill the obligation, with the mediation of the Department. If the person is not able or is not willing to fulfill the obligation, the Department will inform the Council in a written form. The Council within three days from the day of receipt will decide for termination of the measure for protection “change of identity” and for cessation of the Program.

If the protected person committed a criminal act before the change of identity, upon a request of the court, the Department secures his/her presence and usage of the authentic identity, and the Court can determine special manner for hearing, in accordance with the Law on criminal procedure. The other possible case is if the protected person commits a criminal act after signing the Agreement. The department will inform the Council which can bring a decision for cessation of the Program.

In accordance with Article 41 of the Law, financial means for implementation of this law are provided from the Budget of Republic of Macedonia and by the international resources and programs designed for the witness protection needs. The Minister of Interior will issue bylaws for the manner of usage of the financial means from paragraph 1 of this article.