THE SECRET OF PRE-TRIAL INVESTIGATION: PROBLEMATIC ISSUES OF OBTAINING INFORMATION ON ATTORNEY REQUESTS WITHIN THE FRAMEWORK OF CRIMINAL PROCEEDINGS

The article investigated the problematic issues of obtaining information on attorney requests within the framework of criminal proceedings in terms of the importance of maintaining the secrecy of the pre-trial investigation. The main attention was paid to the disclosure of the concept of «secret of pre-trial investigation», since its observance is the reason for refusal to provide information to lawyers' requests. The analysis of the legislation shows that only certain provisions of the Criminal Procedure Code of Ukraine contain norms that are tangential to the concept of «secret of pre-trial investigation», and there is no direct confirmation of this term. Also, the work is subject to scientific criticism of the legislative norm set forth in Part 1 of Art. 222 of the Criminal Procedure Code of Ukraine and it is suggested that in the list of entities that provide permits for the disclosure of information, the inquirer should be noted as an entity that investigates criminal offenses and may grant permits in these types of proceedings. We also justify the need to join the scientific proposals regarding the legislative definition of the list of information that constitutes the secret of the investigation. In the work, we come to the conclusion that the absence of legislative definitions in the specified area of legal relations leads to a number of negative factors: 1) the investigator, inquirer, prosecutor may refuse the lawyer to provide information in accordance with the lawyer's request, referring to the fact that the requested information constitutes a lawyer's secret; 2) the lawyer is deprived of the procedural opportunity to appeal such a refusal due to the lack of a normative definition of the data that constitute the secret of the pre-trial investigation and the procedure for their provision or refusal to provide them; 3) procedurally ineffective is the norm of Art. 387 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine «Disclosure of data of operational investigative activities, pre-trial investigation», because due to the lack of a legislative definition of the term «data of pre-trial investigation», the task of bringing guilty persons to justice is extremely difficult, even if she really disclosed the data that became her known in connection with participation in the proceedings. Regarding the lawyer's receipt of pre-trial investigation information as part of the submission of a lawyer's request, the article proposes to provide a procedural procedure for the lawyer to provide a written commitment not to disclose the specified information without the permission of the investigator, investigator, prosecutor. In our opinion, this construction of the norm of Art. 222 of the Criminal Procedure Code of Ukraine will protect the defense from unjustified refusal, as well as regulate the activity of the investigator, inquirer and prosecutor.