Rights' Group Pans Fyromia 'Staged Arrests'

[Truth Bearer]

Rights' Group Pans Fyromia 'Staged Arrests'

23 July 2008 Skopje _ The idea that one is innocent until proved guilty is being ignored by Fyromian police as it continues to arrest suspects in front of television cameras, a local rights’ group argues.

The fight against corruption and crime must not be an excuse for ignoring this basic right that is guaranteed by Fyrom’s constitution, Macedonia’s Helsinki Committee for Human Rights said Wednesday.

“It is symptomatic how the media know the exact time and place of the arrests,” the organisation argues noting that the televised apprehensions are “ruining someone’s reputation.”

The police is obliged by its own code of ethics to respect and protect the personal integrity of the arrested, the committee adds.

The committee also points out that journalists too are obliged to respect the presumption of innocence and privacy rights of the arrested that are guaranteed by the European Human Rights Convention.

In recent years the committee has repeatedly warned of the violation of these rights as the practice of arrests in front of the public gained in intensity.

The latest such case was last week's arrest of Zoran Zaev, the vice president of the main opposition party, the Social Democrats, who was charged for misuse of office in the town of Strumica where he is a mayor. Read more: http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/main/news/11894/

This led to harsh protest from the opposition and their boycott of parliament. The opposition claims that the government led by centre right VMRO-DPMNE uses the media presence to discredit their political opponents rather than tackling corruption.



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