Decision of the Court of Cassation, I Criminal Section, No. 24384 of 3 March 2015

In a case of reformatio in peius of a first instance verdict, which was decided by the Military Court of Appeal through reconsideration of the evidences collected in the proceeding and, thus, without renewing the trial, the Court of Cassation upheld the arguments of the defendant alleging a violation of his right to a fair trial under Article 6 of the ECHR. The Court took into consideration the interpretation of Article 6 on this particular issue as resulting from many decisions of the European Court of Human Rights, including Dan c. Moldova. For the Court of Cassation, once the European Court has ruled in its judgments that certain provisions in national legislation are objectively incompatible with the ECHR, national courts must regard this ruling as relevant also for deciding on further cases involving the same issue.