Request for a preliminary ruling from the Spetsializiran nakazatelen sad (Bulgaria) lodged on 8 October 2020 — RR and JG, applicants in the context of criminal proceedings

(Case C-505/20)

(2021/C 9/15)

Language of the case: Bulgarian

Referring court

Spetsializiran nakazatelen sad

Applicants in the context of criminal proceedings

RR and JG

Questions referred

Does Article 8 of Directive 2014/42 (1) preclude a national law pursuant to which a person whose property has been seized as an alleged instrumentality or as alleged proceeds of a criminal offence and has been frozen is not entitled to apply to the court during the trial stage of the criminal proceedings for the return of that property?

Is a national law which does not permit the confiscation of an ‘instrumentality’ which is the property of a third party who is not involved in the criminal offence but who has made that property available to the accused for the latter’s permanent use in such a way that, from the perspective of the relationship between them, it is the accused who exercises the rights of ownership, in line with Article 4(1) of Directive 2014/42 in conjunction with Article 2(3) thereof and Article 17 of the Charter?

If the [second] question is answered in the negative: Do the second sentence of Article 8(6) and Article 8(7) of Directive 2014/42 establish an obligation to interpret the national law as granting a third party whose property has been frozen and may be confiscated as an instrumentality the right to participate in the proceedings which may result in confiscation and to challenge the confiscation decision in court?

---

(1)  Directive 2014/42/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 3 April 2014 on the freezing and confiscation of instrumentalities and proceeds of crime in the European Union (OJ 2014 L 127, p. 39).