The suspended head of the Anticorruption Prosecutor’s Office (APO), Viorel Morari, filed a complaint with the European Court of Human Rights about his arrest. In his complaint, Morari complains to the ECtHR judges about the degrading treatment, the illegal deprivation of liberty, the unexplained extension of detention and the lack of impartiality of the court and the criminal prosecution body.
In the document sent to the ECtHR and provided to the www.deschide.md, Viorel Morari invokes the lack of impartiality on the part of the court that decided to place him in temporary arrest and of the persons responsible for his criminal prosecution.
“The applicant complained, that the judge who applied to him the preventive arrest was subject of a criminal investigation led by APO, and was the one that signed a letter complaining about the” pressures “executed by APO.
In this situation, Morari perceives his preventive detention was revenge, contrary to the purpose of Article 5 of the Convention ”, shown in the text of the referral.
At the same time, Morari claims that the prosecutor investigating his case was subject in an investigation led by APO.
Moreover, Morari lawyers write that the authorities, without arguments, applied preventive arrest. Specifically, the lawyers invoke the fact that, although, the judicial authorities are obliged to present relevant and objective reasons for the prolongation of the arrest if not immediately, then within a few days from the application of the measure, which in the case of Morari has not happened.
“On January 13, 2020, the court ruled that the most important argument is a reasonable suspicion that Morari has committed a crime. Another reason for the arrest and later prolongation of the arrest was that of a possible avoidance from the investigation. However, this presumption of the court was not substantiated with evidence and neither confirmed by the plaintiff’s previous or subsequent actions ”, it is stated in the text of the referral to the court.
Moreover, the defenders say that Viorel Morari was detained for 2 hours longer than the law provides. At the same time, the judges would have subsequently extended the measure in the absence of additional arguments, as requested by the ECtHR.
“The authorities must provide other evidence sufficient and relevant to the person’s detention. These reasons include risks of escape, pressure on witnesses or alteration of evidence, risk of recidivism (…) The existence of these risks must be unequivocally be established and the reasoning set forth by the authorities cannot be abstract, general or biased” his lawyers write, invoking the ECtHR jurisprudence.
Morari lawyers say that, according to a decision of the ECtHR in another case, the risk of escape cannot be analyzed only from the perspective of the severity of the punishment that the defendant risks, but according to a set of aspects, including the character of the accused, his morality, his resources, family relations, ties with the persecuting state or its international contacts. Moreover, in their submission, the defendants claim that the court applied the arrest through biased formulas, without doing an individual analysis of the case.
According to www.deschide.md sources, Moraris lawyers claim in the same complaint that the handcuffs were improperly applied to Viorel Morari during his transport to all court sessions.
“The applicant is accused of non-violent action and has never resisted any measured applied to him. Moreover, in his handcuffs, the authorities did not take into account the person’s personality, health status, impact on privacy and influence on his professional reputation and public opinion”, the document shows.
Viorel Morari was detained in January 2020, and subsequently placed in preventive detention. At the expiration of 20 days, the court decided to extend the measure. However, over 10 days, the judges released him from the arrest ahead of time, placing him under judicial control.
Viorel Morari declares himself innocent and accuses that the initiation of the criminal case on his behalf would be a political order, in the context where, in December, he initiated an investigation into the illegal financing abroad of the Socialist Party, whose unofficial leader is Igor Dodon.
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