Italian Supreme Court: the rejection of the request for an evidentiary hearing in case of sexual crimes and other violent crimes can be appealed

The Supreme Court of Cassazione, Joint Criminal Chambers, has established the following principle of law: "The provision by which the judge rejects the request for an evidentiary hearing, concerning the testimony of the injured party of one of the crimes included in the list referred to in art. 392, paragraph 1-bis, first period, of the Code of Criminal Procedure, motivated with reference to the non-vulnerability of the injured party and the postponeability of the evidence, since these are presumed prerequisites by law, is vitiated by abnormality and is therefore appealable in cassation.", thus resolving a conflict in jurisprudence that emerged in the interpretation of art. 392 of the Code of Criminal Procedure following the amendments introduced by art. 1, paragraph 1, letter h), Law no. 212 of 15 December 2015 (approved by Parliament to implement Directive 2012/29/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 25 October 2012 establishing minimum standards on the rights, assistance and protection of victims of crime, and replacing Framework Decision 2001/220/GAI), a further period has been added to art. 392, paragraph 1-bis, of the Code of Criminal Procedure, with the aim of regulating the concept of the so-called "atypical" evidentiary incident: in connection with the new art. 90-quater of the Code of Criminal Procedure, it is established that «[i]n any case, when the injured party is in a particularly vulnerable condition, the public prosecutor, also at the request of the injured party, or the person under investigation may request that an evidentiary incident be held to take his or her testimony».