02/10/2012 Session
Strasbourg, 02.10.2012 – The attempt to criminalise Iceland’s former Prime Minister Geir Haarde is an example of how holding a political leader criminally responsible for his political acts “poisons the political climate without advancing the cause of justice”, according to a memorandum on the affair prepared for the Legal Affairs Committee of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE).
Pieter Omtzigt (Netherlands, EPP/CD), who is preparing a report for PACE on “Keeping political and criminal responsibility separate”, said in an information memorandum – made public in Strasbourg yesterday – that the attempt to criminalise Mr Haarde had “clearly backfired” against Iceland’s political class and had “left a bad aftertaste”.
Mr Haarde had been “singled out for prosecution by his political opponents and convicted for having merely followed a long-established practice”, he said. “Nobody was able to tell me what the Prime Minister should or could have done at the relevant time in order to prevent the banking crisis.”
Politicians who make bad decisions should expect to be sanctioned through the ballot-box rather than in the courts, Mr Omtzigt suggested. Criminal responsibility should normally apply only when a politician acts for personal gain or intentionally violates others’ rights.
He also expressed “some doubts” about whether the parliament was an appropriate body to act as a prosecuting authority, and questioned whether the two provisions under which the former Prime Minister was indicted were compatible with the European Convention on Human Rights.
Mr Omtzigt visited Iceland in May this year, where he met with Mr Haarde and his defense attorney, the prosecutor in the case, the Chair of the parliamentary review committee set up to look into the matter, and the Chair of Iceland’s Constitutional Council, as well as other Icelandic parliamentarians and legal experts.
He is also due to visit Ukraine to look into the criminal charges filed against former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko and several members of her government. The final report is due in 2013.
Contact: [email protected]