Brussels, 06/05/2014 (Agence Europe) - In a ruling in case C-398/12 on Thursday 5 June, the European Court of Justice said that double indemnity rules mean that it is not possible to re-prosecute an individual if a case has been dismissed through lack of evidence.
The European judges were ruling on the case of an Italian living in Belgium against whom a long trial ended in his being discharged through lack of evidence that was confirmed by the Belgian appeals court. The man then faced a trial in Italy over the same matter. He told the Italian court that double indemnity applied to him given the Belgian court ruling and the Italian court asked the European Court of Justice whether this applied in the Schengen Area as well as in an individual member state.
The Court of Justice said yes, double indemnity applies in this case because the dismissal for lack of evidence is deemed a definitive legal ruling as it was issued following an in-depth study of the case in question. Hence any new legal case can only be pursued if new evidence comes to light. The European judges ruled, however, that any new case (in the event of new evidence emerging) has to be in the country where the initial ruling was given because only the authorities of that country are able to verify whether the evidence supplied is really new. (JK)