Criminal Procedure Law (Austria)

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In Austria, the basis for criminal proceedings is the Austrian Code of Criminal Procedure (StPO). It regulates the procedure for the investigation of criminal offenses, the prosecution of suspicious persons and related decisions (Section 1 (1) StPO). The criminal process belongs to the area of ​​public law. The criminal proceedings in Austria consist of the preliminary investigation, the main proceedings and the appeal proceedings.

Principles

Sections 2 to 17 of the Code of Criminal Procedure list certain principles for all criminal proceedings. The principles in detail are:

Authority

The principle of authority or official principle includes:

  • Any suspicion of a criminal offense that has come to the knowledge of the criminal police or public prosecutor's office, with the exception of private charges, must be investigated ex officio (duty of prosecution, principle of legality). As a result, once a report has been made, it can no longer be withdrawn.
  • In the main proceedings, the court has to investigate the offense on which the indictment is based and the defendant's guilt ex officio.

Objectivity and Truth Research

The criminal police, the public prosecutor's office and the court must investigate the truth and clarify all facts that are important for assessing the crime and the accused (Section 3 (1) of the Code of Criminal Procedure).

All judges, public prosecutors and criminal police bodies must exercise their office impartially and impartially. You have to determine the circumstances serving to incriminate and defend the accused with the same care (Section 3 (2) StPO).

Charge principle

The principle of indictment separates the function of indicting from the function of judging. If both functions were left to the court (inquisition process), this could seriously endanger the impartiality and impartiality of the judge. Therefore, only an authorized prosecutor (prosecutor may complainants , Subsidiarankläger ) and never the court prosecution.

Lawfulness and proportionality

The criminal police, public prosecutor and court may only intervene in the rights of persons to the extent that this is expressly provided for by law and required to fulfill their tasks (Section 5 (1) StPO).

Right to be heard

The accused has the right to participate in the entire procedure (Section 6 (1) StPO).

Every person involved in the proceedings (e.g. accused or victim) and all persons affected by means of coercion have the right to an appropriate legal hearing and to information about the cause and purpose of the procedural act concerning them as well as about their essential rights in the proceedings ( Section 6 (2) of the Code of Criminal Procedure).

Right to defense

The accused has the right to defend himself. He has the right to defense counsel in every stage of the proceedings. He must not be forced to incriminate himself.

Presumption of innocence

The presumption of innocence is one of the central principles of criminal procedural law and reads as follows:

"Everyone is counted as innocent until they are finally convicted."

- § 8 StPO

Section 8 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (StPO) standardizes the principle, which is to be applied anyway by way of Article 6 (2) HRC, which has constitutional status, that no one may be considered guilty of a criminal act until an independent court has ruled on his guilt.

The presumption of innocence (also known as the principle of doubt: in dubio pro reo ) leads to several conclusions, including:

  • The court has to confront the accused impartially (e.g. ECHR March 20, 2001 Bsw 33501/96).
  • The prosecution (public prosecutor's office) has to prove the defendant's guilt, but the defendant does not have to prove his innocence.
  • The accused (accused) is not required to accuse himself; his silence is fundamentally (cf. ECHR May 2, 2000 Bsw 35718/97) not to be seen as an admission of guilt (cf. ECHR February 8, 1996 Bsw 18731/91).
  • Convictions that are not yet legally binding may not be assessed as aggravating (RIS-Justiz RS0074772 [see legal information system of the Republic of Austria ]).

Free assessment of evidence

There are basically no rules as to when an authority has to recognize evidence as true. All evidence is equivalent.

Judgment options of Austrian courts in criminal proceedings

In Austria there are three options for pronouncing a verdict in criminal proceedings:

  • acquittal
  • guilty verdict
  • Judgment of lack of jurisdiction

Instance move

The criminal procedure has a two-tiered instance . Appeals (so-called “full appeal”) are permitted against judgments of the district court and the regional court as single judge . Here, not only the pronounced amount of punishment (so-called “criminal appeal”) and the establishment of the facts and the guilt of the accused (“guilty appeal”) can be combated, but also statutory grounds for invalidity (“invalidity appeal”) can be asserted. A senate consisting of three judges at the regional court decides on the full appeal in the district court procedure; over those of the single judicial proceedings at the regional court, a senate consisting of three judges at the higher regional court.

In proceedings at the regional court as a lay judge or jury court, there is the possibility of a criminal appeal as well as an annulment complaint. The Higher Regional Court decides on the appeal , and the Supreme Court decides on the annulment appeal (and, if applicable, a criminal appeal) .

reception

The Austrian law of criminal procedure, together with the Austrian Code of Criminal Procedure largely in Liechtenstein rezipiert ; see also: Code of Criminal Procedure (Liechtenstein) .

The above-described basis for the criminal process, the procedure for the investigation of criminal offenses, the prosecution of suspicious persons and related decisions can therefore also be largely adopted for Liechtenstein.

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