2018-03-14

Ramallah

West Bank

Legal memo to: 

His Excellency Head of the High Judicial Council

Complaint from: 

Four complaints lodged by a citizen, named Mohammad Jamil Ibrahim Mansour

Subject: 

“Failure to Maintain Fair Trial Guarantees and Obligations of Public Service”

Memo date: 

14/03/2018

Brief description:

1- The complainant claims that on 28/12/2017 he went to the Public Prosecution office to file an appeal against a dismissal order which had been rendered in his case. He went to the court’s registrar to get a copy of the court order, as requested by the Public Prosecution office, but the procedure took too long that he missed the period of appeal, and therefore was deprived of his right to fair trial.

2- The complainant claims that his lawsuit was dismissed because neither he nor his attorney attended the hearing, knowing that the complainant had officially informed the court that he had removed his counsel, and still the official notification to appear in court was sent to the removed attorney, which caused him great harm. In response, the complainant filed a complaint based on the claims mentioned above, only to know after about a month that the court’s registry did not even deliver the complaint to the President of the court.

3- The complainant pointed out in his complaint that he had requested a copy of a case file several times since the date of 08/06/2016 until 06/02/2018, and each time the officer in charge would answer that the file is lost or missing, which caused him harm and prohibited him from accessing justice and claiming his rights.

4- The same complainant claimed that a magistrate court judge rendered a verdict to defer consideration of his case without enabling him to present evidence, and without hearing the witnesses or letting the record show that they were present in court or even informing them of the date of the next hearing. The said verdict not only did it deprive the complainant of fair trial guarantees, but it also extended the litigation process.

MUSAWA sees that the contents of the complaints, if true, are in violation of the complainant’s right to access to justice, and that the officers in charge  fail to meet the obligations of public service.

MUSAWA’s intervention:

In its memo to the Head of the High Judicial Council, MUSAWA demands that the necessary legal action, by which the complainant is entitled to a fair remedy, the officers in charge are held accountable for harming the complainant, and the complainant should be able to access the documents he needs.