An Appellate Reversal Exceeding Its Limits Is Void; the Acquitted Client Walked Out of Prison

Court of Cassation, 12th Criminal Chamber (in line with the Grand Criminal Chamber decision of 30.04.2025)

The allegation was the issuing of false documents in 2013. The case dragged on for years; the court of first instance weighed the witnesses, the documents and the charge and acquitted. The tax office took the file to the regional court of appeal, and that is where the first wound to the law was opened. The regional court reversed the acquittal and sent the file back to the trial court. Yet, save in very exceptional cases, a regional court of appeal cannot reverse and remit like a court of cassation; it opens the hearing itself, corrects any error itself and gives the judgment itself.

In the returned file the acquittal turned into a conviction and the judgment was stamped “final”. The iron door closed and execution began. I nevertheless forced the road that was said to be closed; I filed a cassation petition and then appealed the decision rejecting it. The Chamber had to send the file to the Court of Cassation.

Relying on the Grand Criminal Chamber decision of 30 April 2025, the 12th Criminal Chamber of the Court of Cassation pointed to the very first wound. The appellate reversal exceeding its limits was void; nor did the first instance court have any right to resist it. All acts and decisions of a court lacking jurisdiction were void. My client was released.

So was justice done? While the file went back to the beginning the calendar kept running; the twelve-year limitation period expired on 31 December 2025 and the prosecution lapsed. My client was neither left convicted nor restored to the acquittal he deserved. I appealed the lapse decision too, on the ground that he had a right to be cleared and that a lapse decision cannot be given where an acquittal could be. A judiciary that takes procedure lightly does not only consume time; sometimes it steals a person’s freedom.