Published on 25 July 2022

FIRST SECTION

Application no. 2017/20 Marcin WALCZAK against Poland lodged on 23 December 2019 communicated on 4 July 2022

SUBJECT MATTER OF THE CASE

The application concerns the alleged lack of adversarial character of the proceedings concerning the applicant’s detention on remand.

The applicant was arrested on charges of participation in an organized criminal group extorting loans from various financial institutions with the use of forged IDs. The prosecutor requested the competent court to place the applicant in detention on remand for three months, arguing that there was a strong suspicion, that the applicant had committed the offences he was charged with and a risk that the applicant would incite to perjury. The court’s hearing scheduled on 16 June 2019 at 10 am was postponed to 11 am on the same day. The applicant’s lawyer requested a 30-minute recess, arguing that six out of nine volumes of the case files attached to the prosecutor’s request were not accessible to him, as they were in the judge’s office. The court refused and granted the prosecutor’s request to remand the applicant in custody. In his appeal against this decision, the applicant complained that he and his lawyer had not had full access to the case file and the substantial part

of evidence in breach of the domestic law and the Convention. On 26 July 2019 the court of appeal dismissed the applicant’s appeal and stated that the applicant’s lawyer had not made use of time at his disposal to familiarize himself with the case file. The court took no stance on the applicant’s submissions concerning the lack of the applicant’s access to the case files.

The applicant complains that the proceedings concerning his detention on remand were not fully adversarial as required by Article 5 § 4 of the Convention.

QUESTION TO THE PARTIES

Were the proceedings concerning the applicant’s detention on remand in compliance with the requirements of the Article 5 § 4 of the Convention? (see, Włoch v. Poland , no. 27785/95, ECHR 2000 XI)