The Investigation and Trial in Absence, the Procedural Rights of the Defendant and his Lawyer

Preliminary investigations constitute the first stage of the criminal proceeding, during which important actions are performed. The bodies of the judicial police and the prosecutor as subjects of criminal law have the right to conduct the restricting of freedom by performing the arrest of defendant when caught in flagrance, or detention of any citizen who is suspected of having committed a criminal offense, if it is proved the existence of this offence. The Start of prosecution is not general but specific, as it is attributed to a particular person, on which there is a reasonable doubt based on evidence that the he is the perpetrator. The criminal proceeding begins with the defendant and the prosecution communication, and other investigative actions, audits, inspections, seizure, confrontation, while the defendant is present, until the conclusion of the investigation. In Albania during totalitarian regime, preliminary investigations were characterized by the inequality of parties, as investigative actions were carried out in secret and the evidences were formed at this stage of the investigation. In 1993 Albania adopted the constitutional provisions on the human rights and fundamental freedoms, and according to them changes were made to the Criminal Procedure Code, which improved the level of criminal proceedings and created the conditions for its further democratization. In the code were clearly defined positions of criminal procedure subjects, by approaching to the ideas of accusatory system of Anglo-Saxon model which guarantees the principle of presumption of innocence, equality of parties, the evaluation of evidence in judicial debate etc.