Speeches

The Statement of the Human Rights Defender on the Monitoring of Legal Processes
12/12/08

1.  The monitoring of these legal processes revealed that:
• The evidential base of the prosecutive party is not convincing.
• The courts always support the approaches of the prosecutive party.

2. My inner conviction coincides with the approaches of the defense party, and this is reasonable, since such practice by the Office of Public Prosecutor and Special Investigation Body when an institution of factual owner emerges should at least be balanced by the Human Rights Defender.

3. I appreciate the institutes of both pardon and amnesty but my preference in this case is for amnesty.

4. Taking into account that the “Case of the 7” is already in Court and that it can serve as a touchstone for the further development path of the country, I have decided to take up the following actions.
• Not to be biased and to perform in a professional way;
• Not to breach the independence of the court (since according to the case law of the European Court of Human Rights the opinions expressed in parallel with legal processes can be considered as encroachment on the independence of the Court and an attempt to execute an alternative process)
• To provide constant monitoring of this process and to appear with a statement on the basis of collision of accusatory party arguments and defense party arguments and the position of the judge.
• I call upon civil society institutes and media to perform the same constant professional supervision.
• This is the case when all human rights structures and the media, due to consistent professional activity and without any show performances, can achieve considerable results from the standpoint of protection of human rights.