The courts of law excessively apply the compensation mechanism for damages due to poor detention conditions in relation to prisoners. This endangers state security. The Ministry of Justice said it will create a working group that will reassess the regulations regarding the compensatory instrument. A moratorium could be ultimately instituted on this, IPN reports.
Acting director of the National Administration of Penitentiaries Vladimir Cojocaru, who was questioned by the Parliament’s commission on national security, defense and public order, said the mechanism took effect on January 1, 2019 and during the year the almost 7,000 detainees submitted more than 5,000 applications to have their jail term reduced. Almost 2,500 applications were examined and 1,400 of these were accepted. As many as 128 persons were released from prison last year under this mechanism. One of these persons returned to jail.
According to Vladimir Cojocaru, particular shortcomings were identified in the process of implementing the mechanism. The judges apply different formulas when calculating terms, mainly in the case of persons in remand detention. Under some of the decisions, a day of remand detention in poor conditions is equal to a two-day reduction in the jail term. But there are also decisions by which the jail term is reduced by three days for one day of remand detention. The goal pursued by this instrument is not achieved.
The commission’s chairman Alexandru Jizdan said the National Anticorruption Center’s objections weren’t taken into account when the mechanism was worked out. The Center ascertained excessive discretion when reducing the punishment. “There are examples when this mechanism is applied by order of judges. The presented figures reveal suspicions of corruption,” he stated.
Minister of Justice Fadei Nagachevski said this instrument in Moldova’s conditions has a place in the legal system, but given the alarming figures concerning its utilization by courts of law, the state security is in danger. There are signals that rapists, persons convicted of perverse actions are set free from jails before time. There are risks that the crime rate will increase.
Ex-Premier Vlad Filat, who was sentenced to nine years in jail for influence peddling and passive corruption in 2015, was released on parole based on the compensation mechanism last December. His jail term was reduced for the degrading conditions in which he was held at Penitentiary No. 13.
