Type: Judgment

Authority: European Authorities: Euopean Union' Court of Justice

Date: 09/07/2023

Subject: The Court affirmed that Directive 2012/13/EU on the right to information in criminal proceedings, and Directive 2013/48/EU on the right of access to a lawyer in criminal proceedings and in European arrest warrant proceedings, and on the right to have a third party informed upon deprivation of liberty and to communicate with third persons and with consular authorities while deprived of liberty, read in the light of Articles 47 and 48 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, do not preclude national case-law according to which a court seised, under the applicable national law, of an application for retrospective authorisation of a personal search and the subsequent seizure of illegal substances, carried out during the preliminary stage of criminal proceedings, does not have jurisdiction to examine whether the rights of the suspect or accused person, guaranteed by those directives, were respected on that occasion, provided, first, that that person is able subsequently to establish, before the court hearing the substance of the case, any infringement of the rights arising from those directives, and, secondly, that that court is then required to draw conclusions from such an infringement, in particular as regards the inadmissibility or the probative value of the evidence obtained in those circumstances. Moreover, according to the Court, Directive 2013/48 does not preclude national legislation that provides that a suspect or accused person may, during the preliminary stage of criminal proceedings, be subject to a personal search and the seizure of illicit goods, without that person having the right of access to a lawyer, provided that it follows from the examination of all the relevant circumstances that such access is not necessary in order for that person to be able to exercise his or her rights of defence practically and effectively

Classification: Justice - Art. 47 Right to an effective remedy before a tribunal - Art. 48 Rights of defence

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