To achieve its goal, the draft law to amend and supplement the Code of Criminal Procedure, the Execution Code and the Law on the Supreme Court of Justice, proposed by the Center for Judicial System Reform, should be reviewed. According to experts of the Center for the Analysis and Prevention of Corruption (CAPC), which assessed the bill from the perspective of human rights, a number of shortcomings should be removed as these could have a negative impact by infringing the human rights and freedoms.

In a news conference at IPN, CAPC expert Viorel Parvan said that if this law is adopted and implemented, the principles of transparency, participation and accountability will be ensured insufficiently. Some of the proposals of the bill run counter to the provisions of the Law on the Supreme Court of Justice, the Law on Guaranteed State Legal Aid and of the Code of Penal Procedure. There were identified incomplete provisions that can cause confusion when they are put into practice.

Viorel Parvan stated that the author’s proposal for all the injured parties in a case to be obliged to delegate a person to represent their interests, or the prosecution body or the court can name a lawyer to provide state guaranteed legal aid to represent them, cannot be accepted. In such circumstances, a person is limited in the right to choose the wanted legal representative and this runs counter to the constitutional norms.

The expert noted that a series of unclear motives were included in the bill, which allow the prosecution body or the court to reject the requests concerning the administration of evidence. This will limit the right of the participants in the trial to accumulate and present proofs. Consequently, there are risks that the right to defense and equality of weapons in a criminal case or trial, which are guaranteed by the ECHR, the Constitution and the criminal legislation, will be limited.

Most of the objections refer to the inclusion of a new procedure in the Code of Penal Procedure by which the courts of law are partially substituted by prosecutors as these are empowered to hold accountable culprits and to impose non-jail punishment. This provision does not meet the constitutional norms that provide that justice is administered only by the courts of law and namely through the Supreme Court of Justice, the appeals courts and the judges.

The bill provides that if it is established that a person didn’t commit the offense of which he/she was accused, the prosecution body will have the right to decide whether to continue or not the investigation for identifying the culprit, without being obliged to. This cannot be accepted as the prosecution bodies in such a situation will not fulfill their duties and will not bring the real culprit to justice. Consequently, the values protected by the criminal law will remain unprotected.

The CAPC appraisal was carried out within the project “Harmonization of legislation to the international human rights standards” that is financially supported by the Civil Rights Defenders of Sweden.