The Court of Justice of the European Union on the Relation Between the Repetition of Oral Evidence Due to a Change in the Bench Composition and the Orotection of Crime Victims
Court of Justice of the European Union, First Chamber, judg. 29 July 2019, case C-38/18, criminal proceedings against Massimo Gambino, Shpetim Hyka
With the judgment of 29 July 2019, the Court of Justice has stated that articles 16 and 18 of the Directive 2012/29/EU, establishing minimum standards on the rights, support and protection of victims of crime, do not preclude a «national legislation under which, where the victim of a crime has already given testimony before the bench of a criminal court of first instance and the composition of that bench is changed subsequently, the testimony of that victim must, in principle, be given before that bench in its new composition where one of the parties to the proceedings refuses to allow such a bench to rely on the written record of that victim’s first testimony».
(Francesca Manfredini)