The AI workspace for legal professionals

  • Legal research with access to more than 1 million sources
  • Document automation
  • Matter management
  • Hosted in the EU and Switzerland

Try it free for 14 days (10 questions/day during trial)

Try for freeBook a demo

Absence of defence counsel when severance decided

BGH 1 StR 251/13Bgh / Criminal Chamber IAug 22, 2013Annulled

Open source

Extracted by Omnilex

Omnilex summary

The defendant’s revision against a Munich I Regional Court judgment succeeded. The Federal Court of Justice held that an absolute ground of appeal existed because the Regional Court decided on severance and interruption of the proceedings during the main hearing while defence counsel was absent. The judgment was therefore set aside and the case remitted to another criminal chamber of the Regional Court for a new hearing and decision, including costs of the appeal.

Omnilex headnote

§ 338 Nr. 5 StPO; absolute ground of appeal where a procedural decision is taken in main proceedings in the absence of defence counsel. If the court decides on severance or interruption during the main hearing while the accused is not defended because counsel has failed to appear, the violation constitutes an absolute revision ground; the judgment must be quashed under § 349 Abs. 4 StPO and the matter remitted for fresh adjudication (consid. 1).

Full text

BGH — 1 StR 251/13, Beschluss

Entscheidungsdatum: 2013-08-22

Aktenzeichen: 1 StR 251/13

Dokumenttyp: Beschluss

Normen: § 338 Nr 5 StPO

Vorinstanz: vorgehend LG München I, 20. Dezember 2012, Az: 8 KLs 381 Js 200686/12

Spruchkörper: 1. Strafsenat

Titelzeile

Strafverfahren: Abwesenheit eines Verteidigers während der Verhandlung über die Abtrennung eines verbundenen Verfahrens

Tenor

Auf die Revision des Angeklagten wird das Urteil des Landgerichts München I vom 20. Dezember 2012 gemäß § 349 Abs. 4 StPO aufgehoben.

Die Sache wird zu neuer Verhandlung und Entscheidung, auch über die Kosten des Rechtsmittels, an eine andere Strafkammer des Landgerichts zurückverwiesen.

Gründe

1 Der Senat folgt dem umfassenden Aufhebungsantrag des Generalbundesanwalts. Es liegt der absolute Revisionsgrund des § 338 Nr. 5 StPO vor, weil das Landgericht die Entscheidung über die Abtrennung und Unterbrechung des Verfahrens gegen diesen Angeklagten in der Hauptverhandlung vom 6. November 2012 getroffen hat. In dieser Hauptverhandlung wurde der Angeklagte nicht verteidigt, weil sein Verteidiger nicht erschienen war (BGH, Beschluss vom 13. April 2010 - 3 StR 24/10, StV 2011, 650).

Raum Wahl Graf

Jäger Mosbacher

Keywords

criminal procedurerevisionabsolute ground for appealdefence counsel absentseverance of proceedingsremand

Extracted by Omnilex

Key legal questions extracted by Omnilex

Key legal question

Whether the judgment had to be set aside because the severance/suspension decision was taken in the absence of defence counsel.

Extracted holding

Yes. The absolute ground for appeal under § 338 No. 5 StPO was present because the relevant decision was made in a main hearing at which the defendant was not represented by counsel.

Extracted reasoning

The Regional Court decided on severance and interruption during the main hearing of 6 November 2012. Since defence counsel had not appeared, the defendant was unrepresented when that procedural decision was taken; this amounts to a violation covered by the absolute ground of appeal.

Continue your research in ChatGPT or Claude

Connect Omnilex to search the legal corpus from your AI assistant.