Witness protection is one of the main goals of the law of criminal procedure, because
protection from criminal intimidation is essential for a fair system of criminal justice. It also helps to
ensure the safety of the participants of criminal procedure. In fact the legal practice often faces the
threat and/or physical, psychological or intellectual impact into the victims, witnesses, interrogators,
prosecutors, lawyers or even judges.
At the meantime Lithuanian law incorporates a number of legal protections for witnesses.
These can be found in both the Code of Criminal Procedure and in general statutory provisions.
Regarding the groups of the legal acts or instruments above mentioned, unfortunately the situation is
not efficient itself for a few of reasons. Firstly, the legal acts provisions concerning the protection of
witnesses are not coordinated inside. It makes inflexible legal practice. And this could only deter the
participants (victims and witnesses) to avoid or even refuse to be examined and say the truth.
Secondly, most of the above-mentioned provisions, which were intercepted from the legal practice in
United States, are declaratory one. Thirdly, analyzing the evaluation of the witness protection
mechanisms in Lithuania it is not enough clear what are the moments of the formal (de jure) and
factual (de facto) grounds of the determination of protection.
This article evaluates these witness protection mechanisms. The main problem with the current
system is that Lithuanian Law is insufficient to protect witnesses from criminal intimidation, or to
ensure that their testimony is heard. Although Lithuanian law does provide protection for
whistleblowers and criminal justice officials from criminal intimidation, the same measure of
protection does not exist for witnesses generally. In addition, the statutes do not harmonize with
international law on the same subject, such as the provisions for witness protection adopted by the
Council of Europe and United Nations Organization. This can be seen after the analysis of the caselaw
of the Human Rights Court in Strasbourg.Straipsnyje nagrinėjama liudytojų apsaugos teisinio mechanizmo sistema ir jos vertinimas
Lietuvoje. Liudytojų apsauga baudžiamajame procese – vienas iš svarbiausių uždavinių,
susijusių su greita bei efektyvia baudžiamojo proceso veikla siekiant įgyvendinti teisingumą.
Dėmesys atkreiptinas į teisinį mechanizmą, apimantį specialiąsias procesines bei specialiąsias
teisines apsaugos priemonių grupes. Šių grupių analizės poreikį lemia praktika, liudijanti
liudytojų apsaugos mechanizmo trūkumus. Teisės aktų nuostatų trūkumai daro neigiamą
įtaką aktyviam liudytojų vaidmeniui procese, t. y. šių dalyvių parodymų formavimuisi, jų turiniui
