From 19 February to 19 March 2024, the Legal Resources Centre from Moldova (LRCM) together with the National Institute of Justice (NIJ), with the financial support of the Soros Foundation Moldova, organised 10 joint seminars for justice professionals. The need for these trainings arose from the amendments adopted in 2023 to the Criminal Procedure Code, such seminars providing the right framework for discussing novelties.

The trainers of the training course were lawyers, prosecutors and judges who were part of the working group that contributed to the drafting of the proposals to amend the Criminal Procedure Code. The participants in the seminars had the opportunity to get to know the essence of the amendments and to analyse the ways proposed to make criminal procedure more efficient.

“Legislative novelties are important, but what matters is their honest implementation in practice, which is why the LRCM brings together justice professionals – lawyers, prosecutors, judges – who are to apply the provisions of the new Criminal Procedure Code in practice,” said Ilie Chirtoacă, Executive Director of LRCM.

The main topics discussed during the training concerned the competence of the National Anticorruption Centre and specialised prosecutors’ offices, access of the injured party to criminal investigation materials, preliminary hearing, hearing by teleconference, and the grounds of appeal against decisions of the courts of appeal. Judges, prosecutors and lawyers also took note of the novelties on special investigative activity, audio/video recording of criminal investigation actions, inadmissibility of appeals, and extraordinary remedies in criminal procedure.

“For us lawyers, such training courses are very useful, as they bring together several specialists from different legal fields to share their experience. We are also informed about new legislative changes,” mentioned lawyer Svetlana Onici, who attended one of the trainings.

“Given the rather wide-ranging changes in criminal procedure, meetings with professionals are useful to discuss, first of all, the idea and the spirit of these changes, so that it is clear where the legislator started from and where he wanted to end up,” concluded Eugeniu Beșelea, judge at the Chișinău District Court, one of the trainers involved in the seminars.

Justice professionals can access three explanatory videos (available in Romanian with Russian subtitles) reflecting the most important novelties in criminal procedure: (1) how to ensure better respect for human rights in criminal procedure, (2) how to ensure effective access to prosecution material, and (3) how to simplify the procedure for examining a criminal case in court.

The training series was organised in the framework of the project “Safeguarding human rights through a more transparent and accountable criminal justice systemˮ, implemented by the LRCM with the financial support of the Soros Foundation Moldova. The views and opinions expressed at the event do not necessarily coincide with those of the Soros Foundation Moldova.