For thousands of Moldovan citizens, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) remains to be the last hope in the battle for righteousness. While authorities are working to change the image of the national justice, a record number of applications were submitted in 2013 to the Court. So far, the government was forced to pay nearly 14 million euros for lost files at ECHR, and the return of the money in the budget is almost impossible.

“He was violent both with me and my little girl. We were beaten, abused, cursed. Whenever we went to the police, the police did not take us seriously. We would only say our home address, and they were responding: ” You again”. I was not calling because I  wanted to see the district inspectors, I needed help. I was desperate”. That is how looks the beginning of the story for which, in January, Moldova was sentenced again at the ECHR.

With her future husband, Tatiana met in college. They married, and later, she gave birth to a baby girl. Their relationship went well until her husband began to bet on sports games. “I was working as a teacher. The salary was small. I had a child at home, nanny needed to be paid. We did not have a common budget of the family, when I was wondering what was he doing with his salary, he was getting nervous. He started to be aggressive towards me and the baby, especially when he was loosing large sums”, says Tatiana.

When the scandals and beatings got frequent, the young woman requested help at police from Riscani district, Chisinau. The police often remained cold to the desperate calls of the woman. “The police was coming in half an hour, with pen and paper in hand. They had to write, but took no actions. Few times they took him to the police station, drew up an administrative process and that was all. I could not ask the district inspector to stay and sleep under my door and hear what’s going on in our apartment”, adds Tatiana, stating that after the police interventions the situation was not improved in any way.

The judge who issued a protective order and canceled it

She divorced, but because she had nowhere to go, being originally from Donduseni, she appealed for help to Shelter “Casa Marioarei”. There, Tatiana was encouraged to apply to lawyers from Promo-LEX Association, who also advised her to seek protection from the state. She managed to obtain the protective order after almost 180 days from the request, when legally the court should issue within 24 hours from receiving the request a ruling which admits or denies the application. “The third time when the police officer went with the order and informed the aggressor, the last drew a conclusion and we found out that the order was canceled even by same judge. The procedure was violated, because the law does not enable the order of protecting victims of domestic violence to be canceled by the same court”, said Lilia Potang, the lawyer who represented Tatiana at ECHR.

Because state representatives have not given support on time, Tatiana, supported by lawyers from Promo-LEX Association, submitted a file to the ECHR, which, in January this year, prevailed. The Court’s decision states that national authorities were passive and did not take measures to protect victims. By their actions, they have tolerated violence and did not take into account the seriousness and extension of domestic violence in Moldova and its discriminatory effect on women. As a result, the Government is obliged to pay Tatiana damages worth about 17 thousand euros.

The number of reported cases of violence is increasing

The case of Tatiana is the third in number on domestic violence for which Moldova was sentenced at the ECHR. The first two were pronounced in 2013, and authorities say that this topic could give headaches in the future, as the number of reported cases of domestic violence is growing.

“Resulting from what the Court wrote regarding this three cases of domestic violence, it appears that there are laws, there is a normative framework, there is just the need to change the mindset. It is necessary to understand that domestic violence is unacceptable, and this must be in the minds of people, not only in the minds of governors”, said the Government Agent at ECHR, Lilian Apostol. In early February, he presented the 2013 report on Moldova files at ECHR.

Records of Moldova at ECHR

In 2013, against Moldova were submitted over 1,300 applications, representing a record number of Moldovan requests registered at ECHR over a year. “I do not know if this is an indicator that things are bad nationally. The fact that people are addressing to court could mean several things: from them knowing their rights to the fact that the national court did not do them justice at home”, says Oleg Efrim, Minister of Justice.

At the same time, after a long period in which Moldova was on top with the big number of applications submitted to the Court during a year, in 2013, our state is no longer among the ten leading countries in this respect. Another record registered by Moldova at the ECHR concerns the number of applications rejected. Thus, in 2013, over 3,600 applications were declared inadmissible or out of the role. This is largely due to three secondary lawyers that, in 2012, the government has delegated to the request of the Registry from ECHR.

Actions of recourse counted on fingers

Since 2004 we have a law that provides so-called regression procedure, by which the State has the right to return the money paid for lost files at ECHR. Government Agent must notify the Attorney General of all cases in which Moldova is obliged to pay some amount of money. If it is demonstrated that certain people, intentionally or with gross negligence, have conditioned the payment of these amounts, the Attorney General shall submit a recourse action on repayment of specified amounts.

According to data provided by the Prosecutor General, to date, have been initiated 11 of such actions. Of these, four were rejected irrevocably, one is pending (research is ongoing) and only six were admitted. They aim decisions and judgments of the Court regarding non-execution or late execution of judgments. This is the reason Moldova has lost most cases at ECHR. Over 30% of the total number of violations of the Convention found in Moldovan cases during 1997-2013 aim the right to a fair trial (Article 6 ECHR).

In this regard, in 2011, was adopted the Law no. 87 on repair by state of the damage caused by the violation of the right to trial within a reasonable time. Thus, was established a national remedy that people whose judgment is not executed can ask to be rewarded here, in Moldova. According to Article 5 of the same law, the state has the right to take recourse actions in case of non execution of judicial decisions and violation of reasonable time to examine cases. Under these provisions, were initiated four actions of regression, amounting over 150 thousand lei, but all applications are being adjudicated.

273 resolution and nearly 14 million euros

“In any particular case where there is found infringement, for sure there are people guilty for this violations. Whether police tortured, or did not examine a complaint of torture, or prosecutor asked for the application of a erroneous preventive measure and without any reasons in this respect, or the judge approved an unjustified request to place in detention, or examined a cause in an unfair way”, says Vitalie Zama, lawyer, NGO “Lawyers for Human Rights”. “Thus, we can easily identify who is the person responsible for the breach. Even without this law of the Government Agent, there are enough legal leverage to prosecute persons alleged guilty”, added the lawyer.

“It is difficult to apply in practice this law as it has certain legal issues”, said Government Agent at ECHR, Lilian Apostol. Namely to establish an effective recourse action, he proposed changes in the law and hopes the project to be approved. “The main difficulty at this point is that, beside the ascertains of the European Court, there must be a national finding that, a certain person is responsible. The problem must be individualized, these procedures on national level are lengthy and only after this follows the action of recourse”. added Apostol.

So far, the ECHR ruled against Moldova 273 decisions, the Government being forced to pay nearly 14 million euros (over 250 million lei).

Even if people’s perception of justice remains unsatisfactory, experts say that the situation in the judicial system is changing. In recent years, several judges have been replaced, have been dismissed, or have left voluntarily. But people want to see open cases against the corrupt and behind bars those who deserve it.

Raisa Răzmeriţă, razmerita.raisa@gmail.com