The initiative to sue public functionaries blamed for the country’s conviction by the European Court of Human Rights, put forward by the Ministry of Justice, looks more like a populist action, jurist Nadejda Hriptievschi, programs director at the Legal Resources Center of Moldova, stated for IPN. According to her, though it is necessary, this initiative is not urgent.
“This initiative surprised me now because there are more serious and pressing problems. But we’ll see what follows. The appeals are stipulated in the legislation, but in a lot of cases these aren’t used. However, the appealing procedures are very complicated. It takes time to prove exactly who is to blame for a violation,” said Nadejda Hriptievschi.
The jurist is convinced that these actions will not bring results swiftly. “This could be rather a populist action when the cases will be examined rapidly and with particular errors. I count a lot on the correctness of judges who will examine these cases so that the results are not selective in the case of particular persons,” she stated.
The programs director noted that appeals filing has been available for a long time. “It was a surprise for me to hear about this measure now. It means that no work has been done in this regard so far. It looks as if they are now looking for scapegoats. I fact, I fear the consequences. Good justice is slower. We will attentively monitor this initiative because it is open to question,” stated Nadejda Hriptievschi.
The expert added she expected that the Ministry of Justice would promote the package of laws on the prosecution service and the package of laws on integrity because namely these are awaited by society.
Minister of Justice Vladimir Cebotari said the Ministry will file civil lawsuits on each case concerning human rights violations lost by Moldova at the ECHR. Today, there will be sued 37 functionaries and judges who include judges of district courts of law and Appeals Courts and employees of the prosecution service. The Ministry of Justice will also determine what possessions those to blame have so as to ensure the damage is repaired.
