THE ABBREVIATED PROCEDURE, ITS BENEFITS, AND CONDITIONS AS AN ALTERNATIVE TO ENDING CRIMINAL PROCEEDINGS

Alternative proceedings are alternative means available to the Public Prosecutor's Office and the parties to end criminal proceedings, dispensing with the oral and public trial arising from compliance with certain legal requirements.

It's like that, alternative proceedings seek efficiency and decongestion in the criminal justice system, considering the excessive formality that a written and dispersed procedure entails, logically provided that the conditions for this are met and it is in the interest of the parties.

Our Code of Criminal Procedure, in articles 326 and following, recognizes the following alternatives to criminal litigation:

• The opportunity criterion is the prescription for public criminal prosecution by the Public Prosecutor's Office when there is minimal impact on the protected legal interest.
  

• Conditional suspension of proceedings is a trial period set by the investigating judge, during which the criminal proceedings are suspended for a period of time during which the accused must meet certain conditions. Once these conditions are met, the proceedings may be terminated.
  

• Conciliation is the common agreement between parties, generally in property-related crimes, and this does not always guarantee the subsequent extinction of criminal proceedings.
  

• And the abbreviated procedure, rather than being an alternative option, is a special procedure. Unlike other alternative options, it can only be used at the conclusion of the investigation, either in the preparatory stage by the investigating judge or in the oral and public trial stage, before sentencing before the sentencing judge or court hearing the case. Furthermore, it can only be applied to public action crimes established in the Penal Code and other specialized substantive regulations, without any restriction regarding the type of crime.
  

While the abbreviated procedure does not extinguish criminal proceedings, it simplifies them and allows for a quick resolution to the conflict in cases where the accused accepts responsibility for the alleged crime. This will depend on compliance with the legal requirements and verification of the facts under investigation.

It is this way, for the judge or court of the case to authorize the application of the abbreviated procedure, the following legal requirements must be met:

• Admission of the facts: The accused must explicitly admit the facts charged as a crime.
  

• Agreement between the prosecutor and the accused: There must be an agreement between the prosecutor and the accused on the application of this procedure and the sentence to be imposed, which should not exceed the legal maximum.
  

• Judicial approval: The judge must approve the agreement reached between the parties, verifying that due process has been respected and that the accused's admission of guilt was voluntary and with full knowledge of the consequences.
  

In conclusion, the abbreviated procedure as an alternative to criminal proceedings allows for a quick resolution of the conflict, by virtue of the agreement between the accused, his defense attorney, and the prosecutor to dispense with an ordinary trial, by which the judge can admit it, issuing a guilty verdict which may not exceed the sentence requested by the prosecutor, in accordance with the provisions of Article 373 of the Code of Criminal Procedure. However, the victim may oppose its application when he considers that the processing of oral and public proceedings is necessary to determine a better understanding of the facts, and the judge may deviate from the agreement reached between the prosecutor and the accused. In both cases, both the victim and the accused must have a lawyer specialized in the matter and with knowledge of the opportunity and scope of this alternative solution to the criminal conflict.

Paola Paz Taceo

Lawyer