Request for a preliminary ruling from the Visoki kazneni sud Republike Hrvatske (Croatia) lodged on 9 January 2024 – Criminal proceedings involving D. d.o.o and Županijsko državno odvjetništvo u Zagrebu
(Case C-8/24, D. d.o.o.)
Language of the case: Croatian
Referring court
Visoki kazneni sud Republike Hrvatske
Parties to the main proceedings
D. d.o.o.
Županijsko državno odvjetništvo u Zagrebu
Questions referred
Does the term ‘proceedings in relation to a criminal offence that may result in confiscation of property, including confiscation without a conviction’ within the meaning of Article 2(3) of Regulation 2018/1805 1 also include criminal proceedings concluded with an acquittal?
Does the term ‘proceedings in relation to a criminal offence that may result in confiscation of property, including confiscation without a conviction’ within the meaning of Article 2(3) of Regulation 2018/1805 also include criminal proceedings concluded with a judgment of acquittal that includes an order to confiscate property as undue proceeds derived from another criminal offence, which is not the criminal offence of which the defendants were acquitted, and in whose commission the defendants were not involved, but rather persons against whom no indictment was brought?
Is it contrary to Regulation 2018/1805, Article 1(2) thereof, and Article 47 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights, to recognise a confiscation order issued in criminal proceedings in which an affected person, within the meaning of Article 2(10) of the regulation:
was not summoned to participate in all stages of the criminal proceedings;
was not advised of his or her right to a lawyer throughout the proceedings;
did not receive the full text of the judgment containing the confiscation order in a language he or she understood, but only excerpts from that judgment, and did not appeal against the judgment thus served.
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1 Regulation (EU) 2018/1805 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 14 November 2018 on the mutual recognition of freezing orders and confiscation orders (OJ 2018 L 303, p. 1).