ZAGREB, March 30 (Hina) - For one year, how long it has had the obligation to consider complaints about procrastinated court processes, Croatia's Constitutional Court has received more than 600 such actions, and upheld only 12 out of
200 accepted cases.
ZAGREB, March 30 (Hina) - For one year, how long it has had the
obligation to consider complaints about procrastinated court
processes, Croatia's Constitutional Court has received more than
600 such actions, and upheld only 12 out of 200 accepted cases. #L#
At the same time, the Strasbourg-based European Court for Human
Rights has returned about 200 complaints of Croatian nationals who
suited the country for violating their right to a fair trial because
of too long court processes.
Since March 2002, the complaining party has been bound to file a
complaint with the Constitutional Court, and only if they are
dissatisfied with the national court's decision they can ask the
Strasbourg court for the opinion.
The change ensued from amendments to the constitutional law on the
Constitutional Court, adopted last March. Until then this
institution was allowed, in an arbitrary manner, to decide whether
before all regular legal procedures are exhausted, it will mull
over procrastinated trials. However, the amended law on the this
Court envisages that it has now the obligation of considering such
actions. In addition, the Constitutional Court is authorised to
determine fines.
These changes resulted in an increase of such suits lodged with the
Constitutional Court
Until the passage of the said law, about 30 complaints of that kind
were forwarded to the Constitutional Court yearly and since then
the number multiplied. On the other hand the inflow of complaints
from Croatia to the Strasbourg -based European court fell in the
second half of 2002 in comparison to the first half of that year.
The fines which the Croatian Constitutional Court has so far
determined in 12 cases of this kind have ranged between 1,500 kuna
and 15,000 kuna (approximately from 200 to 2,000 euros).