Reopening of Criminal Proceedings in Romania in Case of a Trial in Absentia

Abstract

The reopening of the criminal trial in Romania in the case of trial in absentia of the convicted person is an extraordinary remedy of retrial whereby a final judgment of conviction will be retried if the person definitively convicted was not summoned to the trial and did not otherwise have official knowledge of it, thereby guaranteeing the right to a fair trial and, in particular, the exercise of the right of defence in a new trial cycle, which implies the possibility to be heard, to cross-examine witnesses or parties to the proceedings and to produce evidence in his defence, both as to the facts and the circumstances. If the retrial confirms the factual situation and the guilt of the defendant in the first trial cycle, when he was convicted in absentia, his request can be admitted only with regard to the individualisation of the sentence (if there are mitigating circumstances), with the consequence of pronouncing a new judgment than the one previously established.