The Concept and Essence of Suspicion in Russian Criminal Court Proceedings

The author analyzes a highly debated problem of the Russian science of criminal court proceedings — the problem of defining the concept, essence and meaning of suspicion. The institute of suspicion makes it possible to protect the rights and lawful interests in the situation when a person has not yet been charged, but the procedural coercion measures have already been applied. It is noted that the criminal procedure law does not define suspicion, although the term itself is mentioned numerous times, and a number of articles in the Criminal Procedure Code of the Russian Federation set a requirement for the officers of the bodies of preliminary investigation to clarify the essence of suspicion to the participants of criminal proceedings. Although considerable changes have been made in the part of criminal procedure law referring to suspicion, the lawmakers have not dared to reconsider the long-time traditional approach to suspicion established in both theory and practice, but introduced just some specific changes, which have not solved the problems of the criminal procedure activity at the initial stage of criminal prosecution connected with suspicion, but, on the contrary, have increased their number. A considerable number of the norms connected with suspicion and suspects are either mutually contradictory, or non-specific and vague. Not only the lawmakers, but also the science of criminal procedure has not yet proposed a unified approach to the definition of the concept of «suspicion». The author analyzes various approaches to the concept and essence of suspicion found in the theory of criminal court proceedings.