Hearings in Moldova do not yet meet international standards, OSCE report

The parties participating in a hearing in Moldova are rather unprepared, the conditions in the courtrooms are poor, while the trials are often delayed or postponed groundlessly. These are some of the findings of the final report of the OSCE Trial Monitoring Program for Moldova presented at a conference in Chisinau on December 8. The final report is based on the monitoring of almost 7,400 hearings between April 2006 and November 2008 and includes concrete recommendations on how the identified problems might be addressed, Info-Prim Neo reports. The report says that the conditions in courtrooms are poor, the courts do not have the necessary equipment, while the bathrooms are in an inappropriate condition. The lawyers often have an inadequate behavior, while the judges do not make observations to the parties when there is noise in the courtroom. Furthermore, the translations of the sentences are of a poor quality. The Head of the OSCE Mission to Moldova Philip Remler, said the judiciary in Moldova could use the report to overcome the difficulties. “The report is the result of enormous efforts aimed at achieving results in improving democracy in Moldova,” Remler stressed. Attending the conference, Minister of Justice Alexandru Tanase said the Government will now have to make considerable effort to restore the people's trust in the legal system. “We need a professional and non-corrupt legal system,” he said. Liuba Daguta, the head of the legal division of the Prosecutor General's Office, said that though the institution that she represents centered on the protection of human rights and improvement of the prosecution process, the quality of the prosecution is still low, while the prosecutors need professional training. “No report and no monitoring will change the situation if we do not want to change it. A report only points to problems, but those involved should take them into account,” said legal expert Igor Dolea, a member of the Supreme Council of Magistrates. “Unfortunately, some of the recommendations are repeated. Most of them concern the judicial ethics, the rights of the parties in the trial, the summoning of witnesses and groundless postponement of the hearings.” The Trial Monitoring Program was carried out by the OSCE Mission to Moldova and the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights in courts of law in Chisinau and in southeastern Moldova from March 2006 until December 2009. It was supported by financial contributions from Finland, France, Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States.