Journalists and Judges Strengthen Ties in Kyrgyzstan

Journalists and Judges Strengthen Ties in Kyrgyzstan

In what was once a distant connection, journalists and members of the judiciary in Kyrgyzstan are strengthening ties under IDLO’s project funded by USAID aiming to build public trust.

The judiciary in Kyrgyzstan has often been reluctant to engage with the press, contributing to a significant level of mistrust on the part of the Kyrgyz public and the media.

Due to a lack of specialized training on engaging with the press, judges are not well-equipped to brief journalists in a way that maintains appropriate levels of confidentiality and simultaneously provides substantive information about the work of the courts. While some good investigative reporting has taken place, without greater access to more profound data and statistics, reporting can lack nuance and provide either surface-level or imbalanced information. As a result, there has been little transparency and objective knowledge about the judiciary’s performance, the challenges faced, or progress made, contributing to a lack of trust with the public.

In response to these needs, IDLO is implementing the USAID-funded Increasing Public Trust in the Judiciary (IPTJ) program to facilitate dialogue between the judiciary, the press, civil society and the public at large. The activities aim to encourage the judiciary to increase transparency, advance more accurate and substantive reporting, and improve engagement between all stakeholders involved.

New initiatives under the program are working to build on gains made during the USAID-IDLO Judicial Strengthening Program (JSP), which advanced online publication of judicial decisions and launched a court-TV series as part of its efforts to make the work of the judiciary more accessible. Most recently, the Kyrgyz judiciary has started publishing incidents of alleged out-of-process interferences in judicial activities online.

Building on this outreach, the IPTJ program launched a series of Expert Cafés to connect members of the press, the judiciary and civil society for panel discussions and exchanges, as well as a forum allowing increased access to information for journalists.

Since June 2018, journalists have obtained direct access to experts to get opinions on topics such as the results of the 2014-2018 National Target Program for the Development of the Judiciary – which, with the JSP’s support, resulted in a more than tenfold increase in the judiciary’s budget – various e-justice initiatives, and changes to the Kyrgyz Criminal and Criminal Procedure Codes.

Recently, journalists were given exposure to the new User-Satisfaction Index which measures court users’ satisfaction with the performance of the judiciary and identifies areas for improvement. Following the pilot survey of over 1,000 participants across 5 courts, the judiciary will be able to update its methodology and scale up the index to reach 25 courts, providing a comprehensive overview of public opinion.

“The assessment of the court-user satisfaction can reveal the problems that exist in the system, but are not visible, to eliminate them in the future,” affirmed Judge Galina Shin of the Sverdlov district court of Bishkek.

Judges have also cited benefits to the increased level of exchange with journalists. Since March 2018, the IPTJ has supported training for 44 judges on media outreach from Chui, Osh, Jalalabad, and Batken regions, who are expected to speak and interact more with the media and the public. In September 2018, 15 judges took part in a press tour comprising a corps of 24 journalists, which allowed them to apply their newfound skills and speak to innovations in e-justice.

“The most difficult thing is to explain everything in 30 seconds, keeping in mind that you should be brief, clear, and concise. But when you stand in front of a camera, it can be difficult to say what you want even though if you have public speaking experience,” remarked Judge Azamat Uzakbaev, Chairman of the Alamudun District Court, highlighting the value of the training.

“The press tour provided a great opportunity for me to practice my interview skills and to directly interact with journalists,” he continued. “The knowledge from the training was quite useful. I believe that state bodies must be open to media, within the limits of the law.”

Going forward, the program will continue to hold Expert Cafés to improve the capacity for journalists and the judiciary to engage, with the ultimate aim of building public trust.

IDLO

Disciplinary Commission: How are Judges Judged?

Disciplinary Commission: How are Judges Judged?

1700 complaints against judges were received by the Disciplinary Commission for the first year of work as a separate constituent body. This was reported by the Chairperson of the Disciplinary Commission at the Council of Judges of the Kyrgyz Republic Kymbat Arkharova during an ExpertCafe meeting on January 31, 2019.

In fact, it was the first public report of the Commission on the work done.

According to Arkharova, 1060 cases out of the total number of complaints received were returned, according to 246 complaints an internal investigation was conducted.

“According to the results of the official investigation, disciplinary action was taken against 74 judges. According to 172 complaints, it was denied consideration due to the absence of the judge’s guilt and evidence, as well as the expiry of the term for bringing to disciplinary responsibility, ”Arkharova said.

The Commission made submissions on the early release from office in respect of 5 judges.

Powers of the Disciplinary Commission

According to Chinara Musabekova, Deputy Chairman of the Commission, the Disciplinary Commission cannot consider the legality of court decisions; only disciplinary offenses are considered here.

“Most citizens mistakenly believe that the Commission will review judicial decisions. No, we are considering disciplinary offenses, but if there was a systematic violation of service discipline and procedural norms, or the judge allowed interference in his work, we can introduce a notion of early dismissal from his post, as was done in respect of 5 judges. ” explained Musabekova.

Last year, on the basis of submissions, five judges were prematurely dismissed from office: Judge of the Oktyabrsky District Court Gulchekhra Omorov, Chairman of the Sverdlovsk District Court Elvira Zharkeeva, Judge of the Sverdlovsk District Court Dotolotbek Turdukozhoyev, Judge of the Moscow District Court Marles Felix and Judge of the Naryn City Court Aynagul Joschul Jougul J.

In 2018, the Disciplinary Commission agreed with the Prosecutor General on bringing four judges to criminal responsibility.

Reference:

Bringing a judge to criminal responsibility is allowed with the consent of the Disciplinary Commission at the Council of Judges on the proposal of the Prosecutor General. In order to obtain this consent, the Prosecutor General makes a submission to the Council of Judges indicating the circumstances of the criminal case, the applicable criminal law articles and requests for consent to be brought to criminal responsibility as an accused. The decision of the Disciplinary Commission on consent or disagreement on bringing a judge to criminal or administrative responsibility is not subject to appeal.

Commission member Kanat Turganbekov said that now 80% of the judges are new judges.

“It’s not that they all know the procedural code well. Consideration of disciplinary offenses by our commission and their publication on the website increases the responsibility of judges, ”Turganbekov said.

On July 28, 2017, the Law of the Kyrgyz Republic “On the Disciplinary Commission under the Council of Judges of the Kyrgyz Republic” was adopted. “According to the new Law, the Disciplinary Commission is a separate constituent body authorized to consider issues of disciplinary responsibility of judges.” The Disciplinary Commission consists of nine members, the structure is formed by the President, the Jogorku Kenesh and the Council of Judges of the Kyrgyz Republic, 1/3 of the commission, respectively. The Disciplinary Commission is considered eligible after forming at least 2/3 of its membership, currently, there are eight members of the Commission.

[This content was automatically translated from Russian language]

What Will the New Criminal Code Bring?

What Will the New Criminal Code Bring?

Two months later, new criminal legislation comes into force, the concept of which is built on the principles of humanizing justice and strict observance of the rule of law at all stages of a criminal case.

On October 30, during a meeting in the ExpertCafe format, representatives of law enforcement agencies, prosecutors, lawyers, the academic environment and the judicial system told about exactly what changes will take place on January 1, 2019, and how these changes will affect the lives of ordinary citizens.

Humanization of justice

So, in the new criminal legislation concepts such as crime and misconduct are separated. To misconduct attributed actions that do not represent a great danger or harm. Accordingly, the types of punishments will be milder, fines, correctional work, removal from office, etc., but not imprisonment.

Coordinator of the new criminal legislation of the Government of the Kyrgyz Republic, Head of the Investigation Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Kyrgyz Republic, Begaly Pirmatov, said that after the new year, law enforcement agencies will create inquiry units to investigate misconduct.

“In order to optimize work in law enforcement agencies, 625 people have been reduced, 225 full-time units will be created in the inquiry units,” Pirmatov said.

Experts unanimously recognize this innovation as progressive: the deprivation of liberty for a crime of small and medium gravity has long been necessary to reconsider. According to statistics, relapse among prisoners is 40%, which means that the punitive method only worsens the overall criminality in the country.

The new Criminal Code provides for a reduction in prison terms for certain types of crimes, which, according to the logic of the authors of the law, will reduce the cost of prisons.

The balance of powers between the law bodies is changing

From the new year, all crimes and misdemeanors will necessarily be registered in the electronic database – the Unified Register of Crimes and Offenses of the EPPR.

According to Azizbek Shukurbekov, the prosecutor of the Office of the Prosecutor General of the Kyrgyz Republic, information about the start of pre-trial proceedings, procedural actions, the movement of the criminal case, etc. will be entered into the Base.

“An interdepartmental order has already been signed with all law enforcement agencies on the introduction of a single form of a statement about the crime committed and a single form of the protocol on the crime being committed or being prepared. When filling out forms, information will be immediately entered into the program. Access will be provided to the supervising prosecutor as well as to the parties to the process. For example, the applicant, having received a ticket and a code, will be able to track at what stage his application is, who is considering his case,” Shukurbekov said.

Thus, law enforcement agencies will keep records and records of crimes and misdemeanors, while the prosecutor’s office will oversee the legality and timeliness of registration. As the experts assured, the information in the EP cannot be changed or deleted.

Judicial control of the investigation

From the new year, the Institute of the investigative judge is introduced. The investigating judge ensures the legality of the procedural actions from the moment the application is received until the transfer of the case to the court. As the sector head for work with the legislation of the Supreme Court Rasiya Eralieva, said, the investigating judge has a lot of responsibility and wide powers.

It is the investigative judge who determines the legality and validity of the detention, the need for special investigative actions, such as listening to conversations, obtaining information about connections between subscribers, audio and video monitoring of a person or place, etc.

The investigating judge has the right to deposit evidence, that is, the interrogation of a witness and/or a victim at the request of one of the parties.

The deposition “preserves” the testimony before the court since after this procedure there will be no further interrogation. The main purpose of the deposit is to prevent intimidation of witnesses and victims, to avoid re-interrogation of minors, without subjecting them to additional psychological trauma.

But at the same time, the investigating judge does not have the right to investigate or decide on the guilt or innocence of the suspect in court. He should monitor compliance with the law during investigative actions.

Practice polishes theory

Now law enforcement agencies, the judicial system, the prosecutor’s office, the legal profession, in cooperation with the donor community, conduct training for their employees, implement pilot projects in order to launch them from January 1, 2019. Experts say that certain gaps in criminal law will be eliminated during practice.

“For example, in Kazakhstan, after the introduction of the new Criminal Code, 218 changes were made,” the Supreme Court judge Askat Sydykov said.

“We should not slow down the introduction of new criminal legislation for fear of possible obstacles. Obstacles must be overcome since it is no longer possible to live according to the old code, ”said one of the innovators, the dean of the law faculty of the Kyrgyz National University.

[This content was automatically translated from Russian language]