32 DRAGOJEVIĆ v. CROATIA JUDGMENT to ensuring the proper administration of justice. It is perfectly normal that a judge may consider and dismiss an application for release lodged by a detained defendant. In doing so the judge is required, under both the Convention and the domestic law, to establish the existence of a “reasonable suspicion” against the defendant. The mere fact that a trial judge has already taken pre-trial decisions in the case, including decisions relating to detention, cannot in itself justify fears as to his impartiality; only special circumstances may warrant a different conclusion (see Hauschildt v. Denmark, 24 May 1989, § 51, Series A no. 154; Sainte-Marie v. France, no. 12981/87, § 32, 16 December 1992; and Romenskiy v. Russia, no. 22875/02, § 27, 13 June 2013). What matters is the extent and nature of the pre-trial measures taken by the judge (see Fey v. Austria, 24 February 1993, § 30, Series A no. 255-A). 115. Any misgivings which the accused may occasion in these instances are understandable but cannot in themselves be treated as objectively justified. Indeed, the questions which the judge has to answer when taking decisions on continuing detention are not the same as those which are decisive for his final judgment. When taking a decision on detention on remand and other pre-trial decisions of this kind the judge summarily assesses the available data in order to ascertain whether there are prima facie grounds for the suspicion against an accused of having committed an offence; when giving judgment at the conclusion of the trial he must assess whether the evidence that has been produced and debated in court suffices for finding the accused guilty. Suspicion and formal finding of guilt are not to be treated as being the same (see Jasiński v. Poland, no. 30865/96, § 55, 20 December 2005). (ii) Application of these principles to the present case 116. The Court notes that during the proceedings in the applicant’s case his pre-trial detention was extended four times by a three-judge panel of the Dubrovnik County Court in which Judge Z.Č., who later assumed responsibility for the applicant’s case as the president of the trial bench, took part as either the president or member of the panel (see paragraphs 24, 30, 32 and 41 above). The applicant’s detention was extended on the grounds of a risk of reoffending and the gravity of the charges. 117. The assessment of those grounds involved an analysis of all the relevant circumstances of the offence, the manner of its commission and the gravity of specific elements of the charges such as the necessary criminal resolve and engagement in the commission of the offence (see paragraphs 24 and 30 above). However, in the assessment, the judges referred only to the offence as “the subject matter of the charges”, which did not convey their conviction that the applicant had committed the offences in question and cannot be considered tantamount to a finding of guilt (compare Jasiński, cited above, § 56, and, by contrast, Romenskiy, cited above, § 28).

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