As part of his work in the countryside, President Ts. Elbegdorj was this Friday in the city of Erdenet in the Orkhon province -- the concluding station in his itinerary – where he listened how citizens were dissatisfied with their country judicial body.

During a meeting, two-thirds of the citizens spoke out to the president to criticize the work of the legal and judiciary organizations of their province.

In a tragic testimony, a despaired woman who had lost her husband, a worker in hazardous environment, and her brother in an industrial accident, described how she practically “lived” in courts as she spent her time trying to establish the truth about the court’s allegations and sentencing of her son to eight years of imprisonment for the theft of two mobile phones.

For many years, the people present at the meeting have been in direct contact with the country’s judiciary system and the general feeling echoed by most of the audience was that the judges treat poor people harshly and “please those with money and power.”

People in the audience cited numerous cases of abuses of the law and of power and wished the President would persistently and boldly lead the cause to establish justice and reform Mongolia’s judicial institutions.

The President elaborately introduced and explained the core tenets of his judicial reform agenda and underlined the fact that “establishing rules of law and justice is a vital issue towards which concerted attention has to be paid on,” adding he is strongly willed and committed to do so. Nevertheless, he pointed out that he is not “fully convinced that authorities of some organizations share the same belief and conviction,” continuing that those who acted irresponsibly are “guarded by legal provisions and their wrong actions masked.”

According to the President, judicial laws must be changed in order to reform the judiciary, and the Government is now working on a draft law. Meanwhile, he urged legal and judicial officers to respect human rights in the discharge of their duties.

During the meeting, Erdenet citizens also expressed a request to change the status of their aimag into the status of a city, wanted to learn more about the President’s moratorium on death penalty, on scholarship bill for students, on budget law, and on the President’s initiative and actions to preserve national cultural traditions and heritage.

Эх сурвалж Өдрийн сонин