From the moment of informing a person about the charges in the preparatory proceedings, we can talk about a "suspect". A suspect becomes a defendant at the moment of submitting the indictment to court and instituting the judicial proceedings in the case. Nevertheless, these terms, albeit different, are often used interchangeably in the Criminal Procedure Code and in practice. This is due to the fact that the rights and duties of a suspect and a defendant are generally the same:

• main rights and obligations
• evidentiary motions,
• the right to get acquainted with case files,
• quashing the pre-trial detention,
• conditional discontinuance of the proceedings,
• voluntary submission to penalty,
• suspension of penalty,
• conditional release,
• expungement of criminal record,
• compensation claim.

[Legal status as at July 2015]