Legal Opinions and Comments

While the Opinion welcomes a number of improvements to the criminal procedural rules in the Kyrgyz Republic, it also provides a number of recommendations to amend or supplement the Draft Criminal Procedure Code, in order to: 1. effectively prevent and combat torture and other forms of ill-treatment during the criminal justice process; 2. improve the system of juvenile justice; 3. clarify the rules on the inadmissibility of evidence; and 4. ensure a more effective protection of the rights of the suspect or accused at each stage of the criminal proceedings.

The Joint Opinion raises key issues and provides indications of areas of concern. In the interests of concision, the Joint Opinion focuses more on problematic areas rather than on the positive aspects of the draft Amendments. The ensuing recommendations are based on relevant international human rights and rule of law standards and OSCE commitments, Council of Europe and UN standards, as well as good practices from other OSCE participating States and Council of Europe member states. Where appropriate, they also refer to the relevant recommendations made in previous OSCE/ODIHR and Venice Commission opinions and reports.

OSCE/ODIHR, the Venice Commission and DG I welcome the Draft Law, which represents, overall, a substantial improvement of the current Law regulating the operation of the Moldovan Prosecution Service and reflects a genuine effort to modernize the existing legal framework, in line with relevant European standards and best practices. It appears to be of good technical and structural quality, and it deals in detail - although in some cases in a too detailed manner - with many important aspects of the functioning of the Prosecution Service. The opinion recommended, however, to provide a more precise and narrow delineation of the powers of the Prosecution Service outside of criminal law; to include more precise provisions on the internal independence of prosecutors and related safeguards; to include a specific mechanism for the dismissal of the Prosecutor General; to reconsider the proposed provisions with respect to prosecutors in the Autonomous Territorial Unit (ATU) of Gagauzia and to ensure that the Transitional Provisions provide for the appropriate harmonization of the provisions of the Draft Law with those of the Code of Criminal Procedure and any other relevant legislative provisions.