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Changes in the mode of filing a subsidiary indictment

Act dated 19 July 2019 on the amendment of the Act – Code of Criminal Procedure and some other laws, the procedure for bringing a subsidiary indictment has been changed.

Act dated 19 July 2019 on the amendment of the Act – Code of Criminal Procedure and some other laws, the procedure for bringing a subsidiary indictment has been changed.

The legislator amended the provision Article 55 Code of Criminal Procedure, which currently reads: In case of reissue...

Act dated 19 July 2019 on the amendment of the Act – Code of Criminal Procedure and some other laws, the procedure for bringing a subsidiary indictment has been changed.

The legislator amended the provision Article 55 Code of Criminal Procedure, which currently reads: In the event of repeated refusal or refusal to initiate discontinuance of proceedings in the case in question under Article 330(2), the injured person may, within one month of being served with the notice of the order of the Chief Prosecutor to maintain the order under appeal, bring the indictment to the court, attaching one copy for each defendant and for the prosecutor. prosecutor.

It follows from the justification of the law that this solution is intended to remove possible formal or substantive errors of the provision

The legislator has restored the regulations allowing the prosecutor to control the correctness of the lower order of the prosecutor's decision to refuse to initiate again, or discontinuance of proceedings Preparatory.

It follows from the justification of the law that this solution is intended to remove possible formal or substantive errors of the provision. The Chief Prosecutor should draw attention to the fact that the Prosecutor has taken into account the guidelines of the court repealing the previous order so that they can be eliminated (or implemented) during the preparatory procedure.

This would, according to the legislator, exclude the "unwarranted" submission of subsidiary indictments by victims. The legislator assumed that the control of a provision issued by an overriding authority which, by reason of its supervisory functions, has the possibility to assess the appropriateness of the provision. As a last resort, he gives the prosecutor himself the opportunity to file an indictment.

Another amendment to the subsidiary indictment is the addition to Article 55 Code of Penal Procedure section 2a, according to which the court is to notify the other victims known to it. In this way, the legislator wants to ensure the actual possibility of joining the proceedings of another victim of the same act.

The legislator modified the sentence 3 under Article 55(4) the Code of Criminal Procedure in which that provision states that the revocation of the indictment by a public prosecutor is permitted only with the consent of the victim who has filed the indictment and in the event of joining the victim’s proceedings in question Under section 3 (other victims of the same act who joined the case) – including the victim. This amendment should be assessed very positively as the possibility of the public prosecutor to revoke the subsidiary indictment so far was allowed only with the consent of the victim who filed the indictment.

Now, the legislature does not differentiate the rights of the victims of the same act in dependence on the one who brought the subsidiary indictment. This change is important in that any victim, whether he has filed a subsidiary indictment or merely joined the prosecution, should have the same procedural powers.

Author: Sylwia Jaszczuk, lawyer, associate Russell Bedford Poland

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