In the Republic of Moldova, wonderful arrest continues to be accepted. An analysis by the Legal Resources Center from Moldova (CRJM) shows that each tenth person suspected of committing an offense was arrested. The judges of inquiry superficially examine the applications for the issuance of warrants of arrest submitted by prosecutors, IPN reports.
According to the CRJM, 1,643 applications for warrants of arrest were filed in 2022 and over 91% of these were accepted by the judges of inquiry. The figure remains high as the requests for arrest are examined superficially.
“This is rather due to the pro-accusatorial attitude shown by some of the judges of inquiry, the deficient judicial practice or the lack of independence in the judges of inquiry rather than of legislation. Also, the heavy workload of judges affects the possibility of examining the material and the case files concerning the requests for arrest in a proper way,” says a press release.
The CRJM transmitted to the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe a series of updated findings about the existing guarantees and the impact of the measures taken so far by the authorities to prevent and fight unlawful arrests.
The CRJM urged the Committee of Ministers to request the Moldovan authorities to make sure that the national judges and prosecutors obey in practice the guarantees stipulated in Article 5 of the European Convention on Human Rights, especially as regards the verification of the condition of reasonable suspicion of the fact that the person committed the offense and the examination of all the provided relevant proofs.
Also, the Committee of Ministers should ask the authorities to offer full independence and to make sure that the legal requirements for the appointment of a judge of inquiry offers sufficient guarantees for objectively fulfilling the duties. The state should ensure that any person who is detained or arrested in breach of Article 5 can ask for damages regardless of the decision taken over the accusations made against this person.
During June 5-7, 2023, the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe will check the measures taken by the Republic of Moldova in the context of consideration of execution by the Republic of Moldova of the Sarban group of cases. The Sarban group of cases consists of 14 ECHR judgments that identified various violations of Article 5 of the European Convention on Human Rights – right to liberty and security.
