Around nine million people are the subject of criminal justice proceedings every year in the EU. At the same time, a significant share of those suspected or accused of criminal offences are not found guilty and are never convicted.
Despite the obligation of criminal justice authorities to strictly observe the presumption of innocence, suspects and accused are always subject to certain restrictions and consequences during the criminal proceedings, most of which affect their personal and social sphere. All of these restrictions have their legitimate purposes: some are aimed to facilitate the investigation (seizure of objects to serve as evidence), some prevent absconding or re-offending (remand measures), some protect the victims (restraining order). Information about the criminal proceedings is also often publicly released or shared with the media, which further affects the lives of suspects and accused. These measures and restrictions can have certain negative consequences for suspects and accused: loss of job or income, additional expenses, loss of social benefits, worsened relations with family and community, etc.
Against this backdrop, the ARISA Project, implemented together with the Center for the Study of Democracy – Bulgaria, The Center for European Constitutional Law – Greece, and Comunità Papa Giovanni XXIII – Italy, aims atenhancing the observance of the presumption of innocence by :
1. identifying the factors affecting the social status of suspects and accused during the proceedings.
2. analysing and describing their impact, including the effects of disclosing information about the proceedings to other people or to the media.
3. providing judicial and law enforcement authorities with a methodology for assessing the risk of de-socialisation of suspects and accused, as well as with practical guidelines on how to address this risk at the earliest possible stage of proceedings without compromising the effective investigation.
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