Glossary

• Author: European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (EU body or agency)
• Pages: 7-8

7

Glossary

Accused person Any person who has be en formally charged with an offence before a cour t.

Arrest An action of ap prehending persons by police and ta king them into police custody.

Charge An off‌icial notif‌ication given to an ind ividual by the competen t authority of an

allegation that he/she has com mitted a crime, also referred to as ‘accusation’.

Child Any person below the a ge of 18 years.

Defendant Any person su bject to criminal proceedin gs initiated by relevant authoritie s due to

suspicion of he or she havi ng committed a crime. The person rem ains a defendant

until the conclusion of t he proceedings, whic h is understood to mean t he f‌inal

determination of the q uestion as to wheth er or not the person has com mitted

the criminal offence. This conclusion of proceedings includes, where applicable,

sentencing and the resolution of any appeal. It includes the following: person

of interest; suspect o r accused person (see fur ther separate def‌i nitions of these

three categories in t his glossary).

Deprivation of liberty Arrest or detention, including wh en police apprehends a p erson and quest ions

him/her without a j udicial decision o r any warrant. That pe rson may be set free

after question ing; however, deprivation of liberty ap plies if during some period of

time, he/she was not allowed to leave poli ce cu stody.

European arrest warrant An arrest warrant b ased on the Council Fra mework Decision 2002/584/JH A of

13June 2002 on the European arres t warrant and the surrender proced ures between

Member States (EAW) valid t hroughout all Me mber States of the European U nion.

Once issued by one Membe r State (the so-called ‘issuing Member Sta te’), it requires

another Member State (the so -called ‘executing Memb er State’) to arrest and

transfer a crimina l suspect or senten ced person to the issuing s tate so that the

person can be put on t rial or complete a detention period.

Executing Member State See under ‘European arrest warrant’.

Issuing Member State See under ‘European arrest warrant’.

Law enforcement authority National police, customs or othe r authority that i s authorised to detec t, prevent

and investigate offences a nd to exercise authority and coercive force.

Lawyer Any person who is authorised to p ursue professional leg al activities, i ncluding to

advise people a bout the law and to represent t hem in court. More sp ecif‌ically, in

the context of this repor t, it includes d efence lawyers, as perso ns authorised to

advise and represent defendants.

Legal aid System of fun ding accessible to peop le with insuff‌icie nt or no means to cover

professional legal he lp and costs of proceedings themselves.

Monitoring bodies National statutory bodies monitoring detention facilities, usually working

for National Huma n Rights Institu tions (NHRIs), playing an im portant role in

strengthening the implementation of procedural rights of suspected and accused

persons in crimi nal proceedings, ens uring the effec tive implementat ion of EU

legislation, in pa rticular, by monitori ng the implement ation of safeguards for

national procedura l rights in practice.