Moldovan Code of Criminal Procedure to be amended

Chisinau, 16 June /MOLDPRES/ - The cabinet today approved a draft law on adjustment of Moldova's  Code of Criminal Procedure to the provisions of the article 5 of the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms and jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights, the government’s communication and media relations department has reported.

Thus, the draft will help optimise the implementation of the constraint procedural measures and preventive ones, in order to ensure the observance of the right to freedom and physical security, as well as adjust the national legal framework to international standards in the area and make the remand institution compatible to these standards. 

The bill stipulates the setting of a time limit of holding under arrest during a trial, in order to ensure the observance of the principle of predictability of the legal norm; in particular, this refers to arrest during the trial. The document also provides the adjusting of standards of the Code of Criminal Procedure to the requirements of motivation and justification of preventive arrest measure, both in the requests by prosecutors and court sentences. Moreover, new criteria and reasons for assessing the need of preventive arrest, such as public danger, are included. 

At the same time, the draft stipulates the exclusion of the suspect from the category of persons on whom the preventive arrest measure will be applied. The arrest will be possible exclusively against the defendant or the accused, with all consequences resulting from this, as to the solidity of reasonable suspicions and charges. The document also proposes clearing up of the procedure to present the request, materials and evidence attached to the request, by imposing the obligation to present them first to defence and, subsequently to court investigator.  

Another clause includes the expanding of powers of prosecutor, as to revoking the preventive arrest, once there are no grounds and needs for arrest, as well as at legal ceasing of arrest. 

(Editor M. Jantovan)