Further avenues of appeal against judgments in criminal proceedings to be given to injured parties

Pursuant to Article 367 of the Criminal Procedure Act (CPA), injured parties do not have the right to appeal first instance judgments in criminal proceedings to the same extent as the prosecutor and the accused. Thus, injured parties can only challenge the part of a judgment that pertains to the decision the award of costs, which an injured party has been ordered to pay or which must be reimbursed to an injured party.

As a result, injured parties do not have the possibility of appealing decisions concerning their procedural rights and legal interests. This runs contrary to the constitutional right to a legal remedy, because it also denies injured parties the right to appeal a court’s decision to grant or reject their indemnification claim.

In decision no. U-I-5/17-11, issued on 14 September 2017, the Constitutional Court ruled that the National Assembly of Slovenia must remedy the inconsistency of paragraph 3 of the Article 367 of the CPA with the Constitution, within a year. This means that in future, injured parties will have further avenues of appeal open to them when contesting judgments in criminal proceedings.