Criminal proceedings against Emil Milev.
Date: 2018-09-19
35


In the second place, as regards the criterion relating to urgency, it is necessary, according to the case-law of the Court, to take into consideration the fact that the person involved in the main proceedings is currently deprived of his liberty and that the question as to whether he may continue to be held in custody depends on the outcome of the dispute in the main proceedings (judgment of 28 July 2016, JZ, C‑294/16 PPU, EU:C:2016:610, paragraph 29 and the case-law cited).
36


In the present case, it is apparent from the information supplied by the referring court and recalled in paragraphs 19 to 25 of the present judgment that Mr Milev is currently deprived of his liberty and that the question as to whether he may continue to be held in custody depends on the decision of the Court, in so far as the answer by the Court to the questions referred might result in his immediate release (see, to that effect, judgment of 22 December 2017, Ardic, C‑571/17 PPU, EU:C:2017:1026, paragraph 59).
40


Since the referring court must rule on the lawfulness of the continuation of the pre-trial detention ordered in criminal proceedings against Mr Milev, on the basis that there are reasonable grounds for believing that he has committed a criminal offence, it must be held that Directive 2016/343 applies to Mr Milev and to those national proceedings.
43


In that connection, Article 4(1) of that directive provides that the Member States are to take the necessary measures to ensure that, for as long as a suspect or an accused person has not been proved guilty according to law, judicial decisions in particular, other than those on guilt, do not refer to that person as being guilty, without prejudice to preliminary decisions of a procedural nature which are taken by judicial authorities and which are based on suspicion or on incriminating evidence.
44


That provision must be read in the light of recital 16 of Directive 2016/343, whereby observance of the presumption of innocence should be without prejudice to decisions on pre-trial detention, provided that such decisions do not refer to the suspect or accused person as being guilty. According to the same recital, before taking a preliminary decision of a procedural nature, the judicial authorities might first have to verify that there is sufficient incriminating evidence against the suspect or accused person to justify the decision concerned, and the decision could contain reference to that evidence.
45


Moreover, it should be noted that the purpose of Directive 2016/343 is, as is clear from Article 1 and recital 9 thereof, to lay down common minimum rules concerning certain aspects of the presumption of innocence and the right to be present at the trial.
47


Accordingly, in the light of the minimal degree of harmonisation pursued therein, Directive 2016/343 cannot be interpreted as being a complete and exhaustive instrument intended to lay down all the conditions for the adoption of decisions on pre-trial detention.
48


It follows from the foregoing that, in the context of criminal proceedings, Directive 2016/343 and, in particular, Article 3 and Article 4(1) thereof, do not preclude the adoption of preliminary decisions of a procedural nature, such as a decision taken by a judicial authority that pre-trial detention should continue, which are based on suspicion or on incriminating evidence, provided that such decisions do not refer to the person in custody as being guilty. Moreover, in so far as, by its questions, the referring court seeks to ascertain the circumstances in which a decision on pre-trial detention may be adopted, and has doubts, in particular, as to the degree of certainty which it must have concerning the perpetrator of the offence, the rules governing examination of various forms of evidence, and the extent of the statement of reasons that it is required to provide in response to arguments made before it, such questions are not governed by that directive but rather fall solely within the remit of national law.