Ex-prosecutor general Alexandr Stoianoglo submitted two applications to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) and won the case over one of these. More exactly, the Court held that there had been a violation of the right to trial, namely of the right to challenge the Superior Council of Prosecutors’ decision of October 5, 2021 as a result of which he was suspended from post.
In a news conference at IPN, Alexandr Stoianoglo said that after the snap parliamentary elections of July 2021, under the populist anticorruption slogan, amendments were made to the legislation with the aim of removing him from the post of prosecutor general and of subjugating the prosecution service to the political factor. He reminded that he was elected prosecutor general by a contest initiated by representatives of the current government.
The reformed Superior Council of Prosecutors appointed a prosecutor who started several criminal cases against him and he was ultimately suspended. The Council’s decision was challenged, but the national courts refused to examine the submitted complaints. He therefore decided to go to the ECHR to defend his basic rights. He filed two applications to the ECHR – one over his abusive arrest based on cases fabricated for political reasons and another one over the inability to challenge the Superior Council of Prosecutors’ decision.
Lawyer Victor Munteanu said the ECHR pronounced on the second complaint. On October 5, 2021, the SCP examined a complaint submitted by an MP, which was formulated based on press reports. His client expected that he will be familiarized with the complaint and will be offered the possibility of defending his rights. But he was removed from that meeting and was not allowed to present his opinion. A prosecutor was later assigned to conduct an investigation.
“The Appeals Court and the Supreme Court of Justice ruled that Mister Stoianoglo didn’t have any of his rights violated. Moreover, the SCJ said the ordering of that way of attack by the SCP was a technical error. The application to the ECHR centered on the violation of this right – that Mister Stoianoglo wasn’t offered the possibility of challenging that decision of October 5 so that its legality, reasons and all its consequences could have been examined,” said Victor Munteanu, noting the prosecutor who was to examine MP’s complaint was appointed arbitrarily as there was no objective criterion for assigning namely him.
According to the lawyer, the ECHR held that the suspension of Mister Stoianoglo from post was arbitrary as there was no mechanism for challenging that suspension, and that the applicant didn’t benefit from any form of legal protection as regards his suspension from the post of which he was deprived for two years, his right to serve as a prosecutor general being violated.
Victor Munteanu noted they consider the solution is to ask again the Superior Council of Prosecutors to put things right, to review that decision and to correctly examine the complaint submitted by the MP. The case will be also submitted to the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe.
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