138. It should first be noted that, as the Court of Justice of the European
Union held: “the concept of “judicial authority” within the meaning of
Article 6(1) of Framework Decision 2002/584 requires an autonomous
interpretation and it is not limited to designating only the judges or courts
of a Member State, but must be understood as designating more broadly the
authorities involved in the administration of criminal justice in that Member
State, as opposed to, inter alia, the ministries or police authorities, which
form part of the executive branch. Thus, this concept is likely to cover
authorities of a Member State who, without necessarily being judges or
judicial bodies, participate in the administration of criminal justice in that
Member State.” (...) Therefore, an authority, such as a prosecutor's office or
a public prosecutor, which has the competence, in the context of criminal
proceedings, to prosecute a person suspected of having committed a criminal
offense, must be regarded as participating in the administration of justice in
the Member State concerned, which the Court of Justice considers to be the
case for, respectively, the prosecutor's offices in Germany (OG and PI cases)
and the Attorney General in Lithuania (PF case)." - See Case C-509/18 PF
(preliminary ruling procedure by the Supreme Court) Judgment of the
Court of Justice of the European Union (Grand Chamber) of May 27,
2019 and further the Conclusions submitted on June 25, 2020, by
Advocate General Manuel Campos Sánchez - Bordona, in Case C510/19 of the Court of Justice of the European Union.
139. In the instant case, in the Constitution of the Togolese Republic, in its
Articles 112 to 119, there are the General Provisions on the Judiciary.
140. It follows from such norms that the judiciary is independent from the
legislative and executive branches of government and that in the
performance of their tasks, the magistrates are subject only to the authority
of the law; (113) and they are irremovable (114).
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