The examination of a victim of an assault as a witness should be waived if, as a result of the act committed against him, he has suffered a permanent mental disability which prevents him from giving evidence of value.7

Blind people can be questioned as “hearsay witnesses”. 8

A relative of a deaf-mute person who does not know sign language cannot be taken into account as an interpreter when the witness is examined as a deaf-mute witness: the testimony thus recorded must be excluded from evidence. However, there is a possibility of this relative being subsequently heard as a witness in respect of what the deaf-mute person has told him.9

The fact that a relationship exists either at the time of the offence or at the time of its assessment constitutes a ground for exemption. Where a witness or witnesses in criminal proceedings refuse to testify on the grounds of their relationship with the accused, the court must carefully examine the existence of a genuine relationship between the accused and the witnesses.13

If the victim is a relative of the accused and does not testify at the trial, the testimony of the police officer who officially attended the scene of the crime and interviewed the victim, including the victim’s statements about the incident, cannot be used as evidence.14

With respect to other co-defendants who are not related, the witness does not have the right to refuse to testify, but may refuse to testify as a relative immunity in matters in respect of which he or she would accuse himself or herself or a relative of having committed a crime. Only the investigating authority, the prosecutor or the court has discretion as to whether this is justified.15

he or she did not refuse to testify as a relative of the person charged, or

the proceedings against him for the offence in question were terminated,

he or she has been placed on probation, or

his criminal liability has already been finally adjudicated. 16

for which you have cooperated with the authorities (and for which the complaint has been rejected or the procedure has been terminated);

for which he or she has been deprived of his or her criminal immunity by reason of active remorse or the successful completion of the probation period of a probationary suspension;

for which the prosecutor’s office has imposed a suspension or termination;

for which the prosecutor’s office reached a settlement with him, with an undertaking to cooperate with the authorities.

The concept and scope of medical confidentiality is defined in Act XLVII of 1997 on the management and protection of health and related personal data. Accordingly, medical confidentiality is defined as health and identity data that have come to the knowledge of the controller in the course of medical treatment, as well as other data relating to necessary or ongoing or completed medical treatment and other data obtained in connection with medical treatment. Medical data are data relating to physical, mental or psychological state, pathological condition, addiction, the circumstances of the illness or death, the cause of death, communicated by the data subject or by another person, or detected, examined, measured, mapped or derived by the healthcare network, and any data relating to or affecting the foregoing. Although the law authorises doctors to handle and transmit data for certain purposes in this context, they are only obliged to testify in relation to data that may be covered by confidentiality, for which a specific legal obligation to disclose is provided (e.g. the obligation of the doctor on duty at the hospital to report and testify on gunshot wounds).21

The lawyer-client privilege covers all facts and data of which the lawyer becomes aware in the course of his or her professional activities. This rule is independent of the existence of the relationship of appointment or of the practice of the profession of lawyer and, consequently, continues to apply even after the lawyer ceases to be a lawyer.22

the identity of the person who provided the information is essential for the detection of a deliberate criminal offence punishable by imprisonment of up to three years or more,

the evidence expected from it cannot be replaced by other evidence, and

the interest in the detection of the offence is so overriding, in particular in view of the material gravity of the offence, that it clearly overrides the interest in keeping the source of the information confidential.30

the immunity of a witness cannot be circumvented by not questioning him or her, but by questioning as a witness the official in the case to whom the person who has immunity has given some account of what happened;32 this is supported by the following case law, according to which, if the victim is a relative of the accused and does not testify at the trial, in the exercise of his immunity, the testimony of the police officer who officially attended the scene of the crime and interviewed the victim (a testimony which thus contains the information provided by the victim about the act) cannot be used as evidence;33

unauthorised refusal to testify may be punishable by a fine (even repeatedly) at the investigative and prosecutorial stage, and may be the basis for criminal proceedings at the judicial stage.34