The quality of the trials in Moldova leaves much to be desired, even if some progress has been made. Frequent delays and postponements of hearings, the conducting of court sessions in other places than the courtroom, and inadequate legal assistance — are just a few of the severest violations revealed by the report titled “Observance of Fair Trial Standards and Corresponding Rights of Parties during Court Proceedings”, presented on Thursday by the OSCE Mission to Moldova. The report is based on the monitoring of almost 2,400 hearings between April 2006 and May 2007 and, according to it, most than a half (51 percent) of these were held in the small offices of the judges, while 13 percent were conducted unofficially in antechambers and lobbies. More than 60 percent of the hearings started up to half an hour later than scheduled. At the same time, 10 percent of the court sessions were postponed because of the failure of the prosecutor to appear before the court, 10 percent because of the plaintiff, 15 percent because of the lawyers and 18 percent due to the absence of the witness. Most of the court sessions were suspended for a period of up to one month. The monitoring showed a series of cases involving severe violations of the right to legal assistance. Frequently, public defenders were appointed at the eleventh hour, leaving the impression that these are not treated on equal terms with the prosecutors. During the presentation of the report, OSCE Deputy Head of Mission Claus Neukirch listed a number of practices that contravened the international standards and those set by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR). “While this report shows certain progress in the activity of the courts, it also reveals that more efforts are still needed for the full implementation of fair trial rights in practice”, he said. “We are in particular concerned about the high number of court sessions conducted in the small offices of judges, as well as the frequent delays and postponements of hearings. These practices might affect the right of defendants to a fair trial in a reasonable period of time”, added Neukirch. The Chair of the Supreme Council of Magistracy, Nicolae Clima, confirmed there were a series of drawbacks and faults which impaired the fairness of the trials in Moldova. Among the negative phenomena Clima mentioned the failure to observe the presumption of innocence by their judges, their involvement in hearing the witnesses, and sometimes rude remarks about the parties. “The information contained in this report is true. It now remains for us to make the necessary changes to build a fair and truly European judicial system” stated Clima. The Report “Observance of Fair Trial Standards and Corresponding Rights of Parties during Court Proceedings”, presented on June 19, was conducted in the spirit of the Trial Monitoring Program, launched by the OSCE Mission to Moldova and the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights in March 2006.