An Overview of Basics, Conditions and Effects of Protestation in Absentia in Criminal Matters

Necessity to trial in absentia in some offences and so to preserve the rights of absent convicted ones, the legislature has tried to recognize the protestation right of the absent convicted persons toward the sum of the two interests. The philosophy of the protestation acceptance in absentia judgments by the legislator is related to one of the fair trial, i.e., the necessity of defense right, the presence right of the accused in the trial. In this case, it is necessary that the proceeding times to be communicated to the accused one, so that the accused or his/her attorney can present the necessary defense through presence in the proceeding. In the absentia trial, the legal assumption on the protestation is that when a defendant isn’t present in the court, the proceeding is not accurate, and defendant defenses has not been heard and the truth hasn’t been revealed for the court and another opportunity should be given to the convicted one to defend himself. Defendant request in this form is called the protestation. This is on the principles of fair trial, particularly the right to attend criminal proceedings, and the defending right principle, and it has several important relics and orders such as suspended sentences and to arrest the issued warrant, to expedite the proceedings, to extinguish the appellant right, to prevent aggravation of punishment, exemption from payment of protestation expense and etc. In this paper, after a glance at the principles and concepts of the absentia proceeding, its legal requirements will be briefly discussed