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Moldova’s shortcomings in combating ill-treatment: “Massive number of complaints and faulty investigations”

Symbolic image. Source: osce.org

Moldova is making modest progress in combating ill-treatment, and commitments made following rulings by the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) are poorly implemented. These are some of the conclusions of the Moldovan Legal Resource Centre (LRCM) sent to the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe, which will assess the country’s actions in this field in September.

The assessment is taking place in view of the Levința group of cases, which found torture and ill-treatment by the police, poor investigation, convictions based on “evidence” of ill-treatment or failure to provide adequate medical care to detainees. The Moldovan government has made a commitment to the Council of Europe to reduce this phenomenon.

In this context, the LRCM announced that it had sent a new communication to the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe on the safeguards and impact of the measures taken by the authorities to prevent and combat ill-treatment.

The document includes, among its findings, the continued existence of a large number of complaints (485) concerning the application of ill-treatment. On the other hand, 2022 saw one of the lowest rates of investigations initiated and subsequently referred to court (3%) following these types of complaints.

At the same time, the conviction rate of torturers is even lower – which leads to impunity for torturers, according to the LRCM. Suspected perpetrators are rarely suspended from their jobs, and the authorities do not even have information on the application of these procedural measures, the NGO adds.

At the same time, the independence of medical workers is directly affected because of their subordinate relationships with the management of remand centres, and the principle of confidentiality of medical examinations is not fully respected.

“In conclusion, we can say that progress has been made in terms of policies to combat ill-treatment, but no substantial progress has been made in the practice of implementing them, as evidenced by the low number of cases initiated and examined, the low rate of convictions and the high rate of lenient sanctions applied,” said Daniel Goinic, Director of the Human Rights Programme at the LRCM.

The Moldovan Legal Resource Centre has therefore urged the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe to ask the Moldovan authorities:

  • transfer of remand prisons from the Ministry of the Interior to the Ministry of Justice;
  • improving the quality of investigations into allegations of ill-treatment and prioritising such cases;
  • ensuring that persons suspected of ill-treatment are immediately suspended from duty and remain suspended for the duration of the investigation;
  • medical staff in pre-trial detention facilities should be given full independence by transferring them to the Ministry of Health;
  • review of sentencing practice in cases of ill-treatment and application of uniform and appropriate sanctions;
  • the generation of accurate statistical data on cases of ill-treatment, including on the length of investigations and court proceedings, suspensions of suspects and sanctions applied.

According to a 2022 study, the average prison sentence for ill-treatment is 5.5 years and the longest is 8 years. In all cases where judges imposed a prison sentence of less than 5 years, execution of the sentence was suspended.

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