Another 25 videoconferencing systems to the value of US$151,700 were bought and installed through the agency of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID)’s Open Justice Project and it will complement the 20 sets previously offered by the Project for the main locations of all courts and a videoconferencing set intended for the Superior Council of Magistracy, to the value of US$131,300, IPN reports.

In a press release, the Ministry of Justice says that besides the donations of equipment made in September – October 2020, representatives of secondary district courts were trained to correctly use the videoconferencing equipment for holding hearings remotely by experts of the Project.

The videoconferencing equipment has proved its worth especially during the state of emergency introduced amid the COVID-19 pandemic. To prevent the spread of the infection in prisons, the authorities have decided to also extend the use of video conferencing during the state of emergency in public health. In the future, the use of the video conferencing system could be extended to examine several types of cases, possibly civil cases too.

The USAID’s Open Justice Project has provided technical and methodological assistance to the judiciary in the Republic of Moldova since 2017. The implementation of the new Integrated Case Management System, the launch of new Courts’ Web Portal, as well as the modernization of the websites of the Superior Council of Magistrates (SCM) and the Agency for Court Administration are just some of the major achievements obtained with support from USAID’s Open Justice Project.

During the implementation of the Project, the assistance provided by the American people came to US$7.5 million.