The Assembly regrets that a number of recommendations addressed
to member States in these texts, in order to safeguard and strengthen
the rule of law, have still not been implemented by the States concerned:
3.1 in the Russian Federation, the
Assembly’s recommendations – notably those regarding the cases of
the former leading executives of Yukos, the Magnitsky case (including
the first call, in
Resolution
1685 (2009), to free Sergei Magnitsky when he was still
alive), and the “spy mania” cases of prominent academics and environmental
whistle-blowers given long prison terms for purported violations
of State secrecy (
Resolution
1551 and
Recommendation
1792 (2007)) – have remained largely unimplemented, despite
the release of Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev from prison
shortly before the end of their prison terms. The rule of law in
the Russian Federation continues to be threatened by a climate of intimidation
vis-à-vis lawyers, journalists and human rights activists;
3.2 in Ukraine, the Assembly’s call to hold to account the
perpetrators and the instigators and organisers of the murder of
journalist Georgiy Gongadze (
Resolution
1645 and
Recommendation
1856 (2009)) was implemented only in part. Three interior
ministry officials and their commander, General Pukach, have been
found guilty of the murder. But their former minister committed
suicide in suspicious circumstances and the accusations launched
by General Pukach against the former president and the former head
of the presidential administration were not followed up effectively;
3.3 in Germany, the Assembly’s recommendation to introduce
elements of judicial self-administration to limit the right of ministers
to issue instructions to prosecutors in individual cases and to
increase judges’ and prosecutors’ salaries in line with the dignity
and importance of judicial office (
Resolution 1685 (2009)) have not
been implemented. Germany still lacks judicial self-administration
and remains one of the Council of Europe member States with the
lowest salaries for judges and prosecutors in relation to the average
salary at the national level;
3.4 regarding France, the Assembly is pleased to note that,
in line with
Resolution
1685 (2009), the institution of the investigating judge
was not abolished, that the right of defence lawyers’ access to suspects
held in police detention has been considerably improved, and that
the right of ministers to give instructions to prosecutors has been
further limited by law. Regrettably, the Assembly’s call to strengthen the
role of the elected representatives of judges and prosecutors vis-à-vis
the politically appointed members of the High Judicial Council was
not heard. France also remains one of the countries with the lowest
per capita resources allocated to the judiciary and the lowest salaries
for judges and prosecutors in relation to national average salaries.
Finally, judges and prosecutors have complained about frequent attempts
by politicians to interfere with their independence;
3.5 in Belarus, the Assembly’s calls to stop abuses of the
criminal justice system for the persecution of political opponents,
to hold to account the senior officials named by the Assembly as
suspects in a series of high-profile disappearances and to abolish
the death penalty have not been heard. Even after the release of
the Václav Havel Human Rights Prize winner Ales Bialiatski, several
political opponents remain unjustly imprisoned, the investigations
into high-profile disappearances remain pending without any results,
and executions have continued.
