Important decision
The Constitutional Court, in its ruling I. ÚS 1456/25 (promulgated on 27 November), clarified when it can intervene in a criminal order on the basis of a constitutional complaint by the victim. It stressed that the abolition of criminal orders at the request of victims of crimes is only possible in exceptional circumstances – typically where referring the victim to civil proceedings would lead to a violation of his or her fundamental rights.
According to the Constitutional Court, a criminal injunction is a tool for the speedy resolution of less complex criminal cases, and the Code of Criminal Procedure does not provide victims with any ordinary remedy against this decision. The Constitutional Court has therefore stressed the need for its own restraint: it is prepared to proceed to a remedy only in cases of manifest excess, for example, in cases of imminent secondary victimisation of victims (particularly vulnerable ones), arbitrary civil referrals or extremely low or completely denied compensation for damages in clearly proven circumstances. The mere fact that a court has chosen a criminal injunction and referred victims with civil claims does not make it unconstitutional.
The present case involved the killing of a child by a fall from a window, where the grandmother was found guilty of misdemeanor negligent homicide, and the survivors sought both adjudication of their claims in the criminal proceedings and a trial in chief. The Constitutional Court rejected their complaints: it found the referral of the six victims (including step-relatives) to civil proceedings to be constitutionally compliant and stated that the right to an effective investigation had not been violated. Thus, the victims cannot “force” a main trial or a stricter legal qualification by means of a constitutional complaint – indeed, the Constitutional Court’s intervention in a criminal order is only possible in borderline, extreme situations.
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