In the judgment of December 11, 2024 of the Supreme Court (IV KK 433/24), the court, considering the cassation appeal filed by the Commissioner for Human Rights in favor of the convicted person, stated that the fundamental right of the defendant is the right, resulting from the constitutionally guaranteed right to defense, to appear in person and conduct his own defense directly before the court. The accused may waive this, but the formal condition for fulfilling the fundamental obligations of the justice system in this respect is to properly notify him of the place and time of his criminal case. Only then can a person make a rational decision regarding his own procedural position.
In the described case, the accused was unjustifiably deprived of his rights. During the first hearing, S. K. gave as his address of residence: (…), C. However, during the next hearing, in which he appeared as a suspect, this address was not indicated again. In his statements, S. K. declared that he did not intend to obstruct or confuse the case, that he had a permanent address in C. at ul. (…), and assured that he would respond to every summons and did not plan to leave the country. In connection with such an unequivocal declaration of the suspect regarding his place of residence, all correspondence in the case should have been sent to the address provided during this hearing. Meanwhile, at every stage of the proceedings, both preparatory and court, correspondence and notifications of hearing dates were consistently sent to the previous address at (…), which did not correspond to the current data provided by the suspect.
