• minors: To be summoned, hearing conducted by the President of the Court (on questions and disputes proposed by the parties), possibility of the participation of a family member of the minor or an expert in child psychology.
• witnesses: To be summoned, no defense lawyer, obligation to answer and to say the truth.
• victims: Same rules applicable for witnesses, with the possibility to appoint a defense lawyer; evaluation of the victims’ statements along with the other pieces of evidence.
• accused: To be summoned, right to appoint 2 defense lawyers (to be summoned as well), mandatory participation of a defense lawyer, right to not answer, no obligation to say the truth.
• suspects: Same rules applicable for accused persons.
• person under special protection: Different regimes applicable, depending on them being either accused persons (same or connected crime) or witnesses, with the possibility, anyway, to participate remotely in the hearings of the trials in which they are accused.
• scope of persons who could not be interrogated: None, with no prejudice, when this is the case, to the right to not answer (generally talking, ministers of religions, lawyers, authorized private investigators, consultants and notaries, doctors, surgeons, pharmacists, midwives and any other health professional, on what they have known by reason of their ministry, office or profession; public officials, public employees and persons in charge of a public service, on facts known by reason of their office which must remain secret or on facts covered by State secrecy, judicial police officers as well as personnel employed by intelligence and security services, on the names of their informers).
• person who cooperated with the inquiry: Different regimes applicable, depending on them being either accused persons (same or connected crime) or witnesses.
The foreign authorities can participate in the hearing, in accordance with the relevant international judicial cooperation legislative framework.
When the address is not immediately available on the basis of public registries, specific investigations have to be carried out by the judicial police.
Generally talking, during the preliminary investigations the interrogation is conducted by the Public Prosecutor; during the trial hearings the questions are addressed directly by the Public Prosecutor or the defense lawyer who requested the interrogation.
When proceeding with certain serious offenses, the interrogation of the minor victim of the crime is carried out, at the request of him or his lawyer, using a mirror glass together with an intercom system.
Moreover, when it is necessary to proceed with the interrogation of a victim who is in a particularly vulnerable condition, the Judge, if the victim or his lawyer requests it, orders the adoption of special procedures aiming at his protection.
Generally talking, documentation of the acts is carried out by means of a report. The report is drawn up, in integral or summarized form, with the stenotype or other mechanical instrument or, if it is impossible to use these means, with handwriting. When the minutes are drawn up in summarized form, the phonographic reproduction is also carried out.
The duty to indicate the source of information occurs only with regard to the suspect/accused.