WITNESSES

Article 177. § 1. Any person summoned as a witness is obligated to appear and testify.

§ 2. A witness who cannot comply with a summons by reason of illness, serious disability or any other insurmountable obstacle, may be heard at his place of stay.

Article 178. The following persons may not be examined in the capacity of witnesses:

defence counsel on facts communicated to him while he was giving legal advice or conducting the case, or

a priest on facts communicated to him in confession.

Article 184. § 1. If there is a justified concern for safety of life, health, freedom or loss of property of considerable dimension regarding the witness or his next of kin, the court, and in the preparatory proceedings -- the state prosecutor, may issue an order classifying as secret the personal data of such witness.

§ 2. In the event that the order referred to in § 1 has been issued, the personal data of the witness shall be known exclusively to the court, the state prosecutor and, when necessary, to a police official who conducts the proceedings. Records of testimonies of the witness may be made available to the accused or his defence counsel only in the manner preventing identification of the witness.

§ 3. The witness shall be examined by the state prosecutor and by the court which may direct a judge from its composition to do so -- at a place and in a manner ensuring secrecy as to the identity of the witness.

§ 4. Examining the witness with the participation of the accused or the defence counsel may only be carried out under such conditions which prevent disclosure of the witness' identity.


§ 5. The court order on the matter of keeping the identity of the witness secret shall be subject to interlocutory appeal within three days. An interlocutory appeal against the order of the state prosecutor shall be decided by the court having jurisdiction over the case. The proceedings regarding the interlocutory appeal are kept secret. In the event that the interlocutory appeal has been granted, the record of the examination of the witness shall be destroyed and the note of it made in the file of the case.

§ 6. The Minister of Justice shall issue an ordinance setting forth:

the technical conditions for the examination of a witness whose personal data shall be kept secret,

the methods for making, preserving and providing access to records of testimonies including information about a witness whose personal data is kept secret, as well as an admissible method of referring to such testimonies in court decisions and pleadings.

Article 585.
2)taking depositions of persons as accused persons, witnesses, or experts,