Appeal and cassation against a military court verdict

What is happening

Once sentence is passed, it feels final. In fact a short period runs for an appeal, counted from the day the copy of the verdict is served. It is easy to miss: the man is in custody, the family is waiting for explanations, and the appointed lawyer has filed something short and formal.

Often the defence came into the trial late, when the evidence had already been assembled as the investigation saw it. The expert report went unchallenged, witnesses were not called, and the circumstances of service and of combat tasks never reached the verdict. Those omissions are what an appeal is built on.

An appeal court examines the case on its merits: it can reclassify the offence, reduce the sentence, exclude an episode, or quash the verdict and send the case back. Cassation looks at something different: substantial breaches of criminal and criminal-procedure law that affected the outcome (Article 401.15 of the Code of Criminal Procedure). They are different remedies with different logic, and they have to be drafted differently.

What the law says

• The appeal period is short and runs from the day the copy of the verdict is served on the convicted person. Where it is missed for good reason, restoration can be sought, and such an application must be supported by documents.
• An appeal may rest not only on procedural breaches but also on the unfairness of the sentence and on the court's failure to take into account circumstances already in the file.
• The circumstances of service matter to sentence: combat tasks performed, awards, wounds, state of health, the command's appraisal, dependants. Where the court did not weigh them, that is a ground of appeal.
• Cassation examines not the facts but substantial breaches of criminal and procedural law that affected the outcome. Evidence is not, as a rule, reassessed there.
• An appeal may be filed by the convicted person, by the defence lawyer, and, in their own interest, by the injured party. Relatives cannot appeal in their own name, but they can instruct a lawyer.
• Filing an appeal does not of itself worsen the convicted person's position: the appeal court is limited in increasing a sentence unless the prosecution asks for that.

What we do

• We obtain and study the whole file, not only the verdict: hearing transcripts, expert reports, testimony and procedural documents.
• We identify the breaches that genuinely bear on the verdict and separate them from formal quibbles that only weaken the appeal.
• We draft the appeal or cassation complaint with specific grounds and references to the pages of the file.
• We apply for restoration of the period where it has been missed, supporting the reason with documents.
• We gather material that was never in the file: appraisals, medical reports, records of combat tasks, family circumstances.
• We appear before the district military court and the cassation court, argue the appeal and respond to the prosecutor's position.

What we need from you

• A copy of the verdict showing the date it was served.
• Hearing transcripts and copies of case material, so far as you have them.
• Any appeal filed by the previous lawyer, and the appeal judgment if cassation is in question.
• Documents the court never examined: medical reports, records of combat tasks, awards, appraisals from the command.
• Family and dependant documents: marriage and birth certificates, evidence about relatives' health.
• Details of the place of detention and where the convicted person is now held.