Effective protection in criminal proceedings and guaranteeing equality of parties – assignment of defense counsel at public expenses

On 20 March 2018, the Academy of Justice, in cooperation with GIZ conducted training on: “Effective protection in criminal proceedings and guaranteeing quality of parties – assignment of deference at public expenses”.

The purpose of the training was to advance the professional skills of judges and prosecutors in proper implementation of legal provisions when it comes to effective protection in criminal proceedings and guaranteeing equality of parties – assigning the defense counsel at public expense.

Within this training were treated topics related to legal provision of CPCK, best practices in fulfilling legal requirements which provide effective protection to defendants in criminal procedure.

Attention was paid to the procedural consequences in cases of not notifying the defendants with the possibility for assigning a defense lawyer even when the defense is not mandatory, as well as cases where due to financial inadequacy, the CPCK foresees the assignment and engagement of the defense counsel at public expense, situations where protection is not mandatory at the request of the defendant under the foreseen legal conditions, in particular when the interests of justice so require, regardless of the foreseen punishment.

Beneficiaries of this training were judges and prosecutors of basic instance from different regions of Kosovo.