MOSCOW, April 5 - RAPSI. The Civil Code amendments adopted on Thursday will allow investigators to interrogate witnesses in civil cases by videoconferencing as the Supreme Court suggested.

Currently, remotely located participants in a trial may only be summoned to the court under the Criminal Code procedure.

Videoconferencing allows interrogating them at their location. In such event they will also have to prove their identity, execute a recognizance and listen to the explanation of their rights. The recognizance should be sent in hard copy to the judge not later than the next day.

Videoconferencing will let participants in a trial save money and time and will help physically challenged people, disabled and prisoners.

The novelty requiring re-equipping courtrooms, accelerating online data transmission and maintaining the equipment will cost almost 4.4 billion rubles ($150 million).