The Lawyers Union is put in the situation to counteract numerous abuses committed by state functionaries against lawyers, said the Union’s president Nina Lozan, who called on the authorities to correctly implement the law. In a news conference at IPN, Nina Lozan presented several cases that she described as abuses against lawyers, naming Veaceslav Turcan and Maxim Belinski among the intimidated lawyers.
“Criminal cases are started against our colleagues based on an article that hadn’t been earlier implemented when examining criminal cases. Until recently lawyers Veaceslav Turcan and Maxim Belinski had by one case started against them, but now they have by two cases pending. It is about Article 352, point 1 of the Penal Code “False statements”, which is a norm that generates a lot of questions,” stated Nina Lozan.
The president of the Lawyers Union said that this norm allows for interpretation errors as it is not clear if the lawyers are subject to this offense component or not. The cause for these errors resides in the absence of doctrinaire interpretations of the offense stipulated in the given norm, the absence of a relevant legal practice and the subjective attitude of the system functionaries.
“We reiterate our protest against the attempts to intimidate and hold accountable lawyers based on arbitrary and unjust reasons. We state that the abuses committed against lawyers Turcan and Belinski run counter to the national penal legislation and international standards, while the actions that derive from these acts distort the rule of law concept,” said Nina Lozan.
In another development, the president of the Lawyers Union noted that a serious precedent concerning the cultivation of fear in the actions of the defenders of the rights and freedoms of people is set in justice. This is fear of possible and unjust prosecution because of statements made by lawyers at particular stages of a trial, using the information provided by his client, with the lawyer not being obliged to or being unable to verify the authenticity of this information.
