On the procedural status of participants in the verification of a report of a crime

The article is devoted to the analysis of the subject composition of participants in criminal proceedings who exercise their rights and obligations at the stage of initiating a criminal case. The points of view of scientists who propose to introduce such participants as “eyewitness”, “victim”, “suspect”, etc. into the criminal procedure law by analogy with the criminal procedure statuses of a witness, victim, suspect are studied, but do not find solidarity. The impossibility of projecting the procedural statuses of classical participants onto participants in the verification of a report of a crime is substantiated. The author’s classification of participants in criminal proceedings depending on the stage or stages in which they participate allows us to single out a separate group of participants in the verification of a report of a crime who act only at the stage of initiating a criminal case. The necessity of observing the principle of freedom from coercion at the initial stage of criminal proceedings is defended, on the basis of which a specific list of rights and obligations of participants in the verification of a report of a crime is proposed.