Rape. Institutionalized disabled victim. Lack of effective investigation. Reopening of criminal proceedings on the complaint of a non-governmental organization

The Chief Prosecutor of the Prosecutor's Office of the Galati Tribunal admitted the complaint lodged by our client (a non-governmental organization active in the field of human rights), dismissed a decision to dismiss the case (on the grounds that the act did not exist) by the Prosecutor's Office of the Galati Court and reopened the criminal prosecution in a case in which investigations were conducted into a rape committed against a disabled institutionalized person.

The complaint lodged on behalf of our client - the organization that exercised its right to challenge the filing of the complaint under Article 4 lit. i), sentence II of Law no. 8/2016 - mainly took into account the incompleteness of the criminal prosecution, the lack of conclusive evidence that takes into account the special situation of the victim of the alleged crime of rape - a person with mental disabilities, institutionalized, vulnerable, materially and emotionally dependent on the staff of the center where she is interned and in whose responsibility she is.

As was also emphasized in the complaint, the purpose of this approach is not to incriminate persons at any cost, but to seriously investigate the complaints of institutionalized persons and, to the extent that "the fact does not exist", this should be the conclusion of the investigation and not the premise from which the investigation starts; the main motive of this approach is to lead to an effective investigation, which represents a guarantee that, to the extent that facts such as those complained of in the case, the prosecution authorities have the real ability to prove them; at the same time, that the investigation should be capable of alerting the persons who run establishments such as the one in which the injured person is institutionalized that their activities do not remain outside the sphere of interest of the State authorities, that the claims of persons with disabilities of any kind, including psychiatric claims, cannot be regarded as being without credibility and that any irregularities can be uncovered.

The reopening of the case was confirmed by the Preliminary Chamber Judge of the Galati District Court on 04.07.2024.