Lawyer Angela Istrate considers the delay in examining cases in court has a negative impact on the administration of justice. This way, not only the rights and interests of litigants are violated, but the state budget is also affected. It happens so when the court awards damages for the delayed examination of cases. The lawyer presented a number of cases that have been tried for years.
In a news conference hosted by IPN, Angela Istrate said the fact that an absolute majority of high-profile cases are settled by court after years of examination is not something of a novelty. A relevant example is the well-known case featuring 24 customs officers. The searches, arrests, hearings in this case have been broadly covered by the press, but this case is still under examination.
“Who is to blame? I don’t think someone can blame the judge for the non-examination of the case within a reasonable timeframe. Moreover, I would say that this is due to the inefficient investigation conducted by the National Anticorruption Center, which charged 24 customs officers in a case without dividing this into separate proceedings. As the case involves 24 persons, 24 lawyers, the trial is long-lasting,” stated Angela Istrate.
According to her, as a defective investigation is invoked, the lawyers had to make approaches to obtain the nullification of evidence collected illegally. The lawyers consider these proofs should be excluded from the case, but they were used to base the indictment on them.
The lawyer noted that procedural violations were committed from the start, since the agent under cover was outfitted with spec equipment and up to the authorization of special investigative measures. None of the banknotes transmitted for the alleged act of passive corruption was found on the searched customs officers. “In the given criminal case, the investigators under cover who practically provoked this offense haven’t been brought. We will ultimately see the dropping of charges against employees of the Border Police and the Patrol Police and acquittals and charge dropping by the Romanian state over the cases of passive corruption started concomitantly with the given case in the Republic of Moldova,” said Angela Istrate.
According to her, the delays in trying cases not only affect the act of justice but also put the accused persons in difficulty. These persons need to travel from the north or south of the country to the court in Chisinau. A part of the persons were suspended from posts and they had to go abroad to earn their living. “The delays in examining cases, in which no verdict is given, does not bring benefits to society or to the accused persons,” stated the lawyer.
The conference forms part of the series of conferences held as part of IPN News Agency’s project “Support for the Justice Reform through multimedia coverage of cases of alleged injustice”. The Agency does not bear responsibility for the public statements made in the public sphere by the organizers of news conferences. IPN News Agency gives the right of reply to persons who consider they were touched by the news items produced based on statements of the organizers of the given news conference, including by facilitating the organization of another news conference in similar conditions.
