A Moldovan man who went to work abroad in 2006 decided to invest money in an apartment under construction situated in municipality of Chisinau. But he didn’t come into possession of the apartment. Based on a court judgment, the man was deprived of the ownership right and of the invested €28,000. The case was presented by Ion Dron, chairman of the public association Center for Initiatives and Public Authorities Monitoring. According to him, this is the case of a criminal complaint that has been examined by Moldovan prospectors and judges for ten years.

In a news conference at IPN, Ion Dron said that citizen Anatol Popușoi invested in an apartment under construction located in Durlești town of the municipality of Chisinau. When the works were completed, the man paid €28,000. He was later issued with an apartment ownership certificate and registered the ownership right with the cadastral office. Shortly afterward, two representatives of the administration of the homebuilding cooperative filed a lawsuit and the Buiucani Court in 2008 passed a judgment by which the investment contract of Anatol Popușoi was annulled. The ownership right over the apartment was also annulled.

“Today, Popușoi Anatolie, as a result of this court judgment, has neither the apartment nor the €28,000 he paid. His ownership right was annulled by the court of law based on this document with four lines and this document is called “Proceedings of the General Assembly of the members of Homebuilding Cooperative No. 307,” stated Ion Dron.

He noted that the document was signed only by the assembly’s secretary. “This document with four lines was considered by seven judges of the Republic of Moldova sufficient for depriving a citizen of the ownership right over the apartment and of €28,000,” said Ion Dron. According to him, the citizen challenged the proceedings in court, but he was told that he does not have this right. After remaining without the apartment and without the money, the man in August 2009 lodged a complaint with the Prosecutor’s Office. It has been the eleventh year of the submission of the complaint, but no irrevocable decision has been made yet.

Since August 2009 until September 2016, the prosecutors and the judges of inquiry had been in a continuous confrontation. Another stage started in 2016, when the judges of inquiry began to cooperate with the prospectors. In November 2017, the Buiucani Prosecutor’s Office made an ordinance by which it rejected the challenges of Popușoi, who disputed another refusal to take legal action. In July 2018, judge of inquiry Andrei Niculcea rejected the challenge, arguing it was submitted late. This interpretation was quashed by the Appeals Court in February 2019 and the case was sent back for reexamination. In May 2019, judge of inquiry Ludmila Barbos made a decision similar to that of Niculcea, even if the Appeals Court ruled that the interpretation of the latter was mistaken and the application was filed on time. The Appeals Court overturned this decision in October 2019. The complaint is again examined by the Ciocana Court, this time by another judge of inquiry.

The chairman of the public association Center for Initiatives and Public Authorities Monitoring said he would like to generate public discussions and debates in the judiciary whose goal is to do justice.
 
The news conference titled “Criminal complaint examined during ten years by Moldovan prosecutors and judges” forms part of the series of conferences held in the framework of IPN’s project “Injustice Revealed through Multimedia”. The project’s partner is the Lawyers Union of Moldova. IPN Agency does not assume the right to decide if the organizers of news conferences are right in the cases about which they will speak as this is the exclusive prerogative of justice, but the exaggeratedly long examination period of these cases, which is much longer than the law allows, can be considered an act of evident unfairness and injustice. IPN News Agency does not bear responsibility for the public statements made in the public sphere by the organizers of news conferences.