Republic of Moldova

Council of Europe Office in Chisinau

On 01 December 2021, the Council of Europe project “Strengthening the human rights compliant criminal justice system in the Republic of Moldova” carried out an online workshop on the use of exceptional grounds for requesting and ordering pre-trial detention and house arrest. The workshop was organised based on the training materials developed, namely the Guide on the risk of public disorder in applying pre-trial detention and the Curriculum for continuous training on the subject area.

59 judges, prosecutors, defence lawyers and free legal aid lawyers are now better informed on the risk of public disorder in the context of other risks justifying arrest, including the rights to the presumption of liberty and the presumption of innocence, the equity of the procedures for ordering the arrest and the justification of the risk and motivation of the court decision.

Certain cases from the European Court of Human Rights case law and practical examples were part of the workshop, where the professionals improved their practical skills on applying both the national and the European Convention on Human Rights’ regulations in the given risk area. A particular emphasis was referred to the issue of the motivation of the court decisions in the context of ordering the arrest on this ground.

The Curriculum on the use of exceptional grounds for requesting and ordering pre-trial detention and house arrest is provided for eight hours of training, and it is to be applied in further continuous training for judges, prosecutors and lawyers.

The workshop discussions were facilitated by the Council of Europe consultant, Mr Igor Dolea, Institute for Penal Reform.

The online workshop took place within the framework of the Council of Europe Project “Strengthening the human rights compliant criminal justice system in the Republic of Moldova”, which is part of the Council of Europe Action Plan for the Republic of Moldova for 2021-2024.