Criminal procedure issues of the status of a priest as a participant in criminal proceedings

About the authors:

Sergey V. Bolotin, Cand. Sci. (Jur.), Associate Professor, Department of Organization of Crime Investigation and Forensic Examinations, Tyumen Institute of Advanced Training for Employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation; s.bolotin@inbox.ru

Natalia V. Sidorova, Cand. Sci. (Jur.), Associate Professor, Department of Crime and Law Disciplines, University of Tyumen; n.v.sidorova@utmn.ru; ORCID: 0000-0002-4991-4036

Abstract:

The article is devoted to one of the undefined terms used in the Criminal Procedure Code of the Russian Federation — “priest”. The relevance and novelty of this study is due to the fact that, in practice, this issue is terra incognita not only in the science of criminal procedure, but also in related scientific disciplines. The purpose of the current work is to try to identify approaches to defining the content and essential features of this concept. The article presents historical and factual moments that reveal the essence of the main carriers of religious functions on the example of four confessions operating in Russia.

On the basis of comparative, etymological, logical methods of analysis of the powers and appointment of various representatives of the main religions in Russia, the authors make such conclusion that it is impossible to use the term “priest” in an equal sense for all the studied confessions. The authors of this article also propose a definition of the investigated term in the Criminal Procedure Code of the Russian Federation, as well as determine the corresponding body of the Government of Russia, which could be entrusted with the responsibility of officially interpreting the terminology on this issue.

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