CoE Justice Quality Head Leyenberger to EuroFora: Risk of Politicaly Motivated Court not negligeable

*Strasbourg/CoE/Angelo Marcopolo/- Recent Facts observed in several CoE Member Countries reveal that Politicaly Motivated and/or Partial Justice might become a real Risk against Fundamental Principles of Rule of Law and Democracy, regardless of, and beyond  the more or less Technical Efficiency of one or another National System of Courts, if this crucial point is not seriously examined and dealt with, replied in substance CoE's experienced Director for Independence and Efficiency of Justice, Christophe Leyenberger, to relevant "EuroFora"s Questions, on the occasion of the presentation of the 2014 Annual Edition of the Report on "Efficiency of Justice" throughout CoE's PanEuropean area covering more than 800 Millions of People, (See Infra).

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 - "During recent years there have been many and various Criticisms concerning an alleged "Political Motivation" of some courts' decisions throughout Europe :

 - Even if it might not always be the 1st time, nevertheless, as far as it concerns specifically the elementary Freedoms and Human Rights, eventually the Prosecution, of some Democratically Elected Leaders of Political Parties, and/or (F.) Heads of State, in differend Countries, from the North to the South of Europe, and from the East to West, during the last 3 or 4 Years, various cases raise Critical Questions regarding the alleged Political Motivations of certain Persons and/or Groups inside the Courts' system".

    - Such incidents occur "in a way which obviously might affect the Trust of the Public to the Quality of Justice -i.e. one of your (CoE's) Landmarks - , if it's not efficiently  addressed before it might provoke irreversible consequences, "EuroFora" observed, from the outset.

    -"How do you feel about that, how do you think that things really are in this regard, and what should be done, in order to have the Trust of the Public ?', we asked.

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     - Indeed, "What you've said are, without any doubt, Facts that we (CoE) observe inside certain Member States", replied Positively from the start, the experienced CoE's Director for Independence and Efficiency of Justice, Stephane Leyenberger.

    - So, "it's Unfortunate that this (issue) is not included in the work if CoE's PanEuropean Commission for the Efficiency of Justice (CEPEJ)", whose Annual Results for 2013-2014 was presenting Leyenberger.

    - "And, through the Informations that we (CoE) receive" via that mechanism, "we are not (yet) at all in a position to have an overall picture  of the Abuse of Justice for Political Motivations, and/or eventual problems of Corruption in this domain", he regretted.

    - On the contrary, "what we (the CEPEJ) try to do here is to simply watch how Justice works in everyday life. But even this allows, however, to make an interesting Observation", (concerning "EuroFora"s Question : Comp. Supra) :

    >>> - "It's not merely because a given system might, eventually, work more or less properly, in everyday life, that it would also be without any problems of Manipulation of Justice or of Abuse of Justice for Political Motivations", he warned.

     - "That's what we (CoE) underline also in our (CEPEJ's 2014) Conclusions, in fine", Leyenberger pointed out, (See Infra).

    => In fact:  - "Even if I don't have any elements to give you now, nevertheless, it's true, indeed, that, even if we (CoE) might say that certain Courts' Systems are quite Efficient (Technically) in certain States, however, this doesn't mean at all that, concerning the Fundamental Principles of Law and the Independence of Justice, they wouldn't have several Problems to denounce and solve"....

     - "But, that's another kind of work", concluded, smiling, the competrent CoE's Director for the Independence and Efficiency of Justice, in reply to the above-mentioned "EuroFora"s Question.

    >>> Indeed, the General Conclusions of CoE's 2014 PanEuropean Report on the Efficiency of Juctice, strongly stress the fact that : -  Any substantial "Evaluation must take fully into account the Specificity of the Public Service of Justice: it must be based on the Essential Principles of the Independence of the judiciary and the Impartiality of judges, which are Pillars in any state governed by the Rule of Law. Policy-makers and judicial practitioners shall work towards a greater Efficiency of their judicial systems, only while fully Complying with these Fundamental Principles", (Comp. Supra).

    This overall CoE's Conclusion, (already pinpointed by Leyenberger at his Replies to "EuroFora"s Questions : Comp. Supra), sticks perfectly well with the recently announced intention of experienced President of the Biggest EU political Party : that of ChristianDemocrats/EPP, Joseph Daul, to launch a Europe-wide Initiative for systematic and thorough Investigations of all denounced incidents where Facts clearly raise Critical Questions on Risks of Abuses which may be committed by some Politicaly Motivated and/or Partial National Judges, obviously Dangerous both for Civic Liberties and Democracy, particularly if they systematically target and harass certain Democratically Elected Leaders of the People, and/or Political Dissidents.