Legislation on Abuse of Power by the Police Not Implemented Fully

23 August 2007

The Partners in the Human Rights Support Project: the �All for Fair Trial� Coalition from Skopje; ARKA from Kumanovo; CGI from Prilep; CDR from Tetovo; and IZBOR from Strumica, presented their objections regarding the manner in which the Internal Control and Professional Standards Sector at the Ministry of the Interior conducts investigations in cases of abuse of power by members of the Police Force.

Namely, in cases of abuse of power, the citizens are entitled to submit complaints to ICPSS, which is obligated to respond to that request and/or conduction investigation on the case. The civic organizations involved in the Human Rights Support Project have mediated, over the past two years, in the process of submission of complaints in about 200 cases of police abuses, including the recent case of unfair holding of Member of Parliament Vlado Buckovski at the Bogorodica border crossing police station.

The press-conference presented excerpts from ICPSS�s negative responses to several of submitted complaints. They are abundant in unreasonable explanations that defy logic and bring up the issue of possible existence of bias, unprofessional conduct in the work of the Sector and attempts to minimize the responsibility of the charged members of the Police.