Judges Pass Arbitrary Verdicts, Blamed for Boorish Conduct :: Charter'97 :: News

The activities of the general jurisprudence has serious flaws, said at the press-conference the chairman of the Supreme Court of Belarus Sukalo, noting that there has been no improvement of the justice’s quality in the year 2002 whatsoever.

There also rose in absolute figures the number of cancelled judicial verdicts of all levels. There have been committed 17 cases of unjustified condemnation of citizens. Out of 1020 judges only 308 made no mistakes in their work. In civil cases the number of illicit court’s verdicts gets closer to 2 thousand. According to Sukalo, the speed with which they consider the lawsuit also leaves much to desire. Only 75 juries out of 154 didn’t violate the established terms.

As concerns the culture of justice, out of almost 1,5thsd complaints, submitted last year, around 700 had to do with rudeness, boorishness, disregard for people on part of the judges, said Sukalo. He is also alarmed by the rise from 31 in 2001 to 55 in 2002 of the number of judges, brought to disciplinary accountability. Over 30 of them were dismissed from the occupied posts for the failure to do the job well.