Order of the Court (Tenth Chamber) of 14 January 2021 – UC and TD (Vices de forme de l’acte d’accusation)
(Case C‑769/19) (1)
(Reference for a preliminary ruling – Article 99 of the Rules of Procedure of the Court – Judicial cooperation in criminal matters – Directive 2012/13/EU – Right to information in criminal proceedings – Article 6 – Right of suspects or accused persons to be informed of their rights – Second paragraph of Article 47 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union – Dealing with a case in a reasonable time – National legislation providing for the discontinuance of judicial proceedings in the case of a finding of deficiencies in the bill of indictment by the court – Remission of the matter to the public prosecutor’s office for a new bill of indictment to be drawn up – Admissibility)
Judicial cooperation in criminal matters – Right to information in criminal proceedings – Directive 2012/13 – Right of a person to be informed of the charges against him or her – Right to be tried within a reasonable period of time – National legislation providing for the termination of court proceedings in the event of deficiencies in the bill of indictment – Obligation to remit the matter to the public prosecutor’s office for a new bill of indictment to be drawn up – Whether permissible
(Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, Art. 47, second para.; European Parliament and Council Directive 2012/13, Arts 6(1), (3) and (4))
(see paras 43-53, 56, 59, operative part)
Operative part
Article 6(1), (3) and (4), of Directive 2012/13/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 22 May 2012 on the right to information in criminal proceedings, the second paragraph of Article 47 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union as well as the principle of primacy of EU law and the right to respect for human dignity must be interpreted as not precluding national legislation which, in the case of a deficient bill of indictment the content of which is unclear, incomplete or inconsistent, in no circumstances allows the public prosecutor to remedy the deficiencies by correcting them at the preliminary hearing during which they are established and instead obliges the court to discontinue the judicial proceedings and remit the matter to the public prosecutor’s office for a new bill of indictment to be drawn up.