Communicated on 17 September 2019

FIRST SECTION

Application no. 32423/19 Darijo MIKIĆ against Croatia lodged on 13 June 2019

SUBJECT MATTER OF THE CASE

In April 2016 the applicant was arrested and then detained on remand. In February 2017 he and several other persons were indicted on charges of drug trafficking. In June 2018 they were found guilty as charged and sentenced to imprisonment. In February 2019 the Supreme Court quashed the first-instance judgment and remitted the case for re-trial on the grounds that a member of the trial panel had previously already participated in the case as an investigating judge and therefore should have been excluded from sitting in the case. The applicant is still in pre-trial detention on the basis of the risk of reoffending.

The applicant complains, under Article 5 § 3 of the Convention, that his pre-trial detention is excessively lengthy and that the domestic authorities failed to display “special diligence” in the conduct of the criminal proceedings.

QUESTION TO THE PARTIES

Is the length of the applicant ’ s pre-trial detention in breach of the “reasonable time” requirement of Article 5 § 3 of the Convention (see Šoš v. Croatia , no. 26211/13 , 1 December 2015; Margaretić v. Croatia , no. 16115/13, 5 June 2014 and Perica Oreb v. Croatia , no. 20824/09 , 31 October 2013) ?