ECHR Precedent Questions Andorra Tribunal's Impartiality Over Ex-Prosecutors

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruling from 1982 has raised questions about the impartiality of Andorra's Tribunal de Corts, particularly due to the presence of former State Attorney General Alfons Alberca among its magistrates.

Alberca, who served as fiscal general for 12 years before joining the tribunal—Andorra's highest criminal court—now sits alongside three other former deputy prosecutors: Carolina Bailén, Núria Garcia Val, and Nàdia Alís. This setup mirrors a scenario the ECHR deemed problematic in the case of *Piersack v. Belgium*, where a prosecutor transitioned to judge and presided over a related murder trial.

In that 1982 decision, the ECHR found a violation of Article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which guarantees a fair trial. The court ruled that a judge's prior role in the public prosecutor's office—described as a hierarchical body marked by unity, indivisibility, and independence—created objective doubts about impartiality. It emphasized that "even appearances matter in this area," and any judge with legitimate grounds for such doubts must recuse themselves. The Belgian case stemmed from the 1976 murder of two French citizens in Brussels; the former deputy prosecutor, who had overseen aspects of the investigation, later led the trial that sentenced the defendant to 18 years of forced labour amid heated legal debate.