Decision of the Court of Cassation, United Criminal Sections, No. 18620 of 19 January 2017

As affirmed by the United Sections of the Court of Cassation in the decision on the “Dasgupta” case (judgment No. 27620 of 2016), the judge of appeal has the obligation of renewing the trial phase before reforming in peius the verdict of first instance, any time such decision is taken, merely, on the grounds of a different interpretation of the evidences collected in the proceeding. Otherwise, there would be a violation of Article 6 of the ECHR (right to a fair trial) as interpreted in the well-established jurisprudence of the ECHR Court. Through judgment No. 18620 of 2017, the United Sections stated that the principles above apply also in the case that the evidences are assessed by the judge by means of documents and not by the hearing of witnesses.

  • See also:

    Decision of the Court of Cassation, United Sections, No. 27620 of 6 July 2016; Decision of the Court of Cassation, II criminal Section, No. 41571 of 20 June 2017

  • Original language: Italiano