الحماية القانونية للشاهد في التشريع الجنائي : دراسة مقارنة

Abstract EN

The means of proof in the criminal cases vary, but testimony is the most important and most common avenue in most criminal suits.

Witnesses play an important and effective role in proving the crime and attributing it to the perpetrators through the important information they provide to the investigating authority or the court.

The witness provides important information that reveals the ambiguity of the crime and helps justice in finding the truth through what he has seen or sensed firsthand on the criminal incident.

Hence the importance of the witness emerges, which requires protection for him and for those closely related to him when he is threatened and prosecuted by the perpetrators for testifying about their criminal incident.

There is no doubt that serious crimes became organized and carried out by gangs that have means and abilities to intimidate witnesses and influence them by threatening to harm them and their families, discouraging them from giving testimony, or forcing them to change their testimonies in their favor.

Consequently, a strong and effective legislative response is required to ensure the safety of threatened witnesses.

In order to demonstrate this kind of protection, we initially presented some witness protection programs in some foreign legislation, then displayed some of the same programs in some Arab legislation.

Finally, we highlighted the mechanisms for activating the legal protection for witnesses through the provision of security services and the procedures for accepting and terminating this protection.

We concluded that there is a divergence in the stance of foreign and Arab legislation in providing witness protection programs.

Foreign legislation provided more comprehensive legal protection for the witness and dealt with mechanisms to implement the protection programs, while this is lacking in most Arab criminal legislation.

Arab criminal legislations must provide more comprehensive legal protection and security to the threatened witness, and consider the act of attacking or threatening the witness an aggravating circumstance of the crime.

Arab criminal legislations should also consider the restriction of the duration of the security protection.