Infringement of the free assessment of evidence and in dubio pro reo principles in the court proceedings as a ground for appeal

Order of Supreme Court of 14 June 2018 in Case II K 186/18

Abstract

The Author of the commentary aims at describing mutual relations between the rule of free assessment of evidence expressed in Article 7 of the Code of Criminal Procedure and the rule in dubio pro reo under Article 5(2) of the Code from the perspective of correctness of bringing forward the ground for appeal in the form of an infringement of procedural law amounting to the infringement of the above-mentioned rules. A good moment for such a commentary has been occasioned by the appearance of the order of the Supreme Court of 14 June 2018 in Case II K 186/18 in which the Court rightly emphasises that potential doubts presented by the parties to the proceedings with reference to the correct assessment of the evidence should form the ground of appeal expressed in the infringement of Article 7 of the Code of Criminal Procedure rather than in dubio pro reo rule. Therefore, the two provisions are of disjunctive nature and their placement in the same ground for appeal is to be considered as erroneous as the claim of infringement of Article 5(2) of the Code refers to the secondary dimension of the court’s proceedings.