Decision of the Court of Cassation, United Sections, No. 27620 of 6 July 2016

The United Sections of the Court of Cassation clarified that what is established in Article 6.3d) of the ECHR concerning the right of the accused to examine or have examined witnesses against him and to obtain the attendance and examination of witnesses on his behalf under the same conditions as witnesses against him, constitutes an interpretative parameter of the domestic procedural rules. In the case of a public prosecutor’s appeal against an acquittal judgment based on the assessment of declarations considered decisive, the appellate court cannot reform the judgment under appeal in the sense of alleging the criminal liability of the defendant without having proceeded, even ex officio, to the examination of subjects who have made declarations on the facts of the trial considered decisive for the purposes of the acquittal (Article  603.3 of the criminal code). The United Sections, therefore, annulled the judgment under appeal.