You have the right to a public court hearing. This ensures that the court does not adopt judgements in secret and that the work of the court is open and visible to the public.
Your right to a public hearing involves two aspects – a public hearing and the public announcement of the court’s judgments.
The right to an oral hearing generally applies to the proceedings in at least one instance. In Bulgaria it applies to all instances. Read more about oral hearings & participation and the situations where the court can decide not to have an oral hearing.
The oral hearings in your trial must generally be public, which also means that members of the public and the media are allowed to be present in the courtroom. However, they may be denied access to the hearings in some parts of the trial or some particular sessions if there are special reasons for this. Closed hearings can be held if:
- The accused is a minor
- It is necessary to protect a witness
- It is necessary to protect morality or person’s private life
- It is necessary to protect a state secret
- A minor who is victim of a crime is questioned as a witness
Whenever a judge makes a decision to hold a closed hearing, he or she must give specific reasons for such a decision. These reasons must be given for each hearing or part of a hearing which is closed.
example The need to protect a witness cannot justify the examination of the entire case in closed sessions if the witness is only being questioned in one session.
Judgements must be available to the public in all instances. The public pronouncement of a judgement does not mean that each judgement in all its parts must be announced in a courtroom with members of the public present. A judgement will also be considered to have been pronounced publicly if it is available to the public through, for example, a special website.
Depending on the circumstances of the case, certain parts of the judgement such as the personal details of protected witnesses, victims or other confidential information may be concealed. The courts cannot conceal the entire judgement. The pronouncement of guilt or innocence and the sentence must always be made public.