Ensure that new court presidents are chosen among judges of that same court, so as to
avoid changes in trial panels and dispersal of case knowledge;
Activate inspections by the Judicial Inspection Department in flagrant cases of
discrimination by the court among lawyers, such as in scheduling court hearings.
To First Instance Court judges
Put efforts in optimizing court working hours by starting trial hearings on time;
Increase the daily time devoted to trial hearings to no less than five hours per day;
Divide court schedules into a morning shift (e.g. nine until noon) and an afternoon shift
(one until three), so as to ensure lack of conflicting court commitments by lawyers;
Ensure that all organizational efforts are put in place for the timely transfer of detainees
to court, including by reinforcing cooperation mechanisms between the court registry and
the prison administration;
Avoid postponing trials for periods longer than three weeks;
Set up a shared electronic court calendar with lawyers so as to avoid overlapping events
and so that lawyers receive reminders prior to the hearings;
Sanction lawyers who do not attend hearings without a valid reason, by imposing fines
and reporting them to the Bar association;
Take all torture and ill-treatment claims with utmost seriousness. Ensure that complaints
are duly recorded in the trial minutes and refer the case file for further investigation and
prosecution;
Demand that the prosecution provides verifiable evidence when requesting the detention
of the defendant; reject arrest requests that are not backed with an investigation file.
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