An agreement on admitting the criminal offense is a written agreement concluded between the public prosecutor and the accused and their defense attorney during criminal proceedings. The moment when such an agreement can be concluded is broadly defined in the Criminal Procedure Law, meaning that the agreement on admitting the criminal offense can be concluded at any time, starting from the issuance of the order for conducting the investigation until the completion of the main hearing. Thus, before the investigation is formally initiated and after the main hearing is concluded, there are no procedural conditions for concluding this type of agreement.
The procedure for concluding the Agreement on Admitting the Criminal Offense is one of the legal bases for mandatory defense, i.e., the mandatory presence of an attorney. This means that if the accused does not choose their defense attorney, one will be appointed for them ex officio from a list provided by the relevant bar association.
If the Agreement on Admitting the Criminal Offense is concluded before the indictment is filed, it is submitted to the court, along with the indictment, which is an integral part of the agreement, and such an indictment is not subject to examination. As previously mentioned, the written Agreement on Admitting the Criminal Offense is submitted to the court, specifically to the preliminary procedure judge if submitted before the indictment is confirmed, or to the president of the panel if submitted after the indictment is confirmed, who will decide on the agreement.
An obligatory phase in the process of concluding the Agreement on Admitting the Criminal Offense and its adoption is the scheduling and holding of a hearing in which the public is excluded, and only the public prosecutor, the accused, and their defense attorney are invited. If the accused does not attend the hearing despite being properly summoned, a decision will be made to dismiss the Agreement on Admitting the Criminal Offense. The same decision is made if the court finds that the submitted agreement does not contain all legally prescribed mandatory elements. If the procedural conditions are met and there are no grounds for rejecting the Agreement on Admitting the Criminal Offense, the court will, after the hearing, issue a judgment accepting or rejecting the agreement.
A judgment accepting the Agreement on Admitting the Criminal Offense, and declaring the accused guilty, is made if the court finds that the accused has knowingly and voluntarily admitted the criminal offense, that the admission is not in conflict with the other collected evidence, that the accused is aware of all the consequences of concluding the agreement, particularly that they understand they are waiving their right to trial, and that they have a limited right to appeal, and that the penalty or other criminal sanctions are in accordance with the Criminal Code and other applicable laws.
If the conditions for issuing a judgment accepting the Agreement are not met, the court will issue a decision rejecting such an Agreement. This decision is also made when there are legal grounds for terminating the criminal procedure (such as statute of limitations, amnesty, pardon, if the act is not a criminal offense, or if there is insufficient evidence to establish a justified suspicion).
When the decision to reject the Agreement on Admitting the Criminal Offense becomes final, the agreement and all documents related to it are destroyed in the presence of the judge who issued the decision, and a report is made about it. The procedure then returns to the phase that preceded the conclusion of the agreement.
Finally, it is important to note that in the process of concluding and deciding on the Agreement on Admitting the Criminal Offense, there is a limited right to appeal. For example, an appeal is not allowed against the decision rejecting or dismissing the agreement. The same applies to the judgment accepting the agreement, unless the judgment does not relate to the subject of the agreement or if there is one of the legally prescribed grounds for terminating the proceedings (such as statute of limitations, amnesty, pardon, if the act is not a criminal offense, or if there is insufficient evidence to establish a justified suspicion). In these exceptional cases, when an appeal is allowed, it must be filed within 8 days from the day the judgment is delivered.