Although the prior admission of guilt has existed for a number of years, it has been little used to date.
This appears to be slowly but surely changing as several prosecutors are promoting prior admission of guilt.
While to many the term prior admission of guilt will mean little, its English-language counterpart is more familiar: so-called “plea bargaining.”
It refers to the situation where the Public Prosecutor and the defendant negotiate an agreement whereby the defendant receives a certain punishment.
Potential benefits:
Both for the OM and the accused, this procedure has many advantages.
For the parquet:
- This procedure gains capacity now that there is less discussion on criminal matters.
There is also no possibility of appeal. - Time savings: the duration of a sentencing phase in criminal matters is significantly shortened and the correctional court is relieved.
- Effectiveness: this procedure gives a guaranteed and faster punitive enforcement of asset sanctions.
The so-called VES (prior admission of guilt) also offers advantages for the defendant:
- Speed and certainty of outcome.
- Participation and consensus within criminal procedure.
- The OM may propose lower penalties than it believed it should seek.
- Final review and ruling by an impartial criminal judge.
Legal framework to establish prior admission of guilt:
The legal framework is provided in Article 216 Sv.
A VES procedure is not possible for all cases.
First, the law states that VES proceedings can only be conducted in cases where the OM would seek a prison sentence of up to 5 years.
There is also a list of excluded crimes, these include the most serious crimes such as:
- Murder
- Sex crimes
- Prostitution
- Crimes theoretically punishable by 20 years of incarceration or more
Procedural safeguards:
When VES proceedings are initiated, the law grants a number of safeguards to the accused.
Thus, there is mandatory assistance of a lawyer.
It is therefore important to have YOU assisted by a criminal lawyer.
In addition, the defendant will have access to the criminal file.
When an agreement is reached, the defendant always has a 10-day cooling-off period.
If the procedure does not lead to an agreement, all documents relating to the procedure of prior admission of guilt will be removed from the file.
This provides an additional guarantee of impartial assessment by the criminal court in subsequent proceedings.
Policy Choices Parquet:
The various Prosecutors’ Offices have already indicated that they will promote the prior recognition of guilt procedure.
IN ANTWERPEN, the Prosecutor’s Office expects that in the context of a VES, the defendant will provide the total amount of the agreed asset sanctions even before the agreement is signed.
This should then guarantee that the agreed fines will effectively be paid.
In addition, the Prosecutor’s Office is committed to an integrated victim-centered approach.
Hereby, a civil agreement is sought with all the victim as additional conditions for signing a VES.
Initiative:
Of utmost importance is to emphasize that both the O.M. and the defendant themselves can initiate VES proceedings.
Do You have questions about the prior admission of guilt?
Contact Peterfreund & Associates, your attorney in ANTWERPEN.
