Main hearing
In German criminal procedural law, main trial detention is the imprisonment of a defendant on the basis of an arrest warrant in accordance with Section 230 (2) StPO . According to this standard, the court can order a demonstration or issue an arrest warrant against a defendant who has not been sufficiently excused to attend the main hearing (court arrest warrant ) .
According to § 230 Abs. 1 StPO, a main hearing will not take place against a defendant who has not been heard. There are only a few exceptions (e.g. Section 231 (2), Section 231a , Section 231b , Section 247 , Section 329 and Section 411 of the Code of Criminal Procedure). If the accused does not appear at the time of the main hearing without excuse, the court can use coercive measures against the accused, the presentation or the arrest warrant according to Section 230 (2) StPO.
The defendant is not sufficiently excused if he can reasonably be accused of failing to attend, considering all the circumstances of the case. So decisive is not whether the defendant apologizes has , but whether he apologizes is .
As always, the principle of proportionality must be observed, so that the presentation as a less drastic measure than the arrest warrant is generally given priority. Because this only means that the accused (usually by the police ) is brought to the main hearing in good time. Only if this measure is unsuccessful may an arrest warrant be issued, on the basis of which the accused is imprisoned.
The content of the arrest warrant must meet the requirements of Section 114 (2) StPO. In contrast to pre- trial detention , it does not require any urgent suspicion or (further) grounds for detention . It only needs to be established that the accused did not attend the main hearing without excuse.
The arrest warrant for the main hearing is not subject to any time restrictions and is effective until the end of the main hearing. As with all detention matters, this must be carried out as soon as possible.
In addition, there is the possibility of main trial detention according to § 127b StPO, which can be ordered if a decision in the accelerated procedure ( §§ 417 et seq. StPO) is probable and due to certain facts it is to be feared that the provisionally arrested person will not attend the main hearing .
