The Notion of „Suspect” in Explanatory Proceedings Based on art. 54 Par. 1. In Petty Offences Procedure Code

Abstract

The aim of the article is to clarify several terminological issues concerning the person who is suspected of a petty offence against whom explanatory proceedings have been instituted by virtue of Art. 54, par. 1, of the Petty Offences Procedure Code. The Code does not define precisely the notion of a person suspected of committing a minor offence, leaving some room for individual interpretations to theoreticians and the doctrine of the procedure law of petty offences. The Code calls the suspected person either “a person suspected of commission of a petty offence” or “a person against whom there are reasonable grounds to draw up an application for punishment”. The article points out some differences between both institutions, although the inconsistency in using these terms by the legislator causes that the distinction becomes blurred, and in practice the trial status of the suspect becomes ambiguous. The above situation may lead to certain factual doubts and misunderstanding relating to the rights of the person suspected of an offence. The article proposes some terminological regime to be imposed as it would order the adopted terminology and introduce the notion of a suspect for a person suspected of committing a petty offence at every stage of explanatory proceedings. Adopting such a solution would involve a proposal to determine the legal status of a person suspected of a minor offence in such a way that he or she can have the rights of a litigant party.