The Chisinau Appeals Court on August 8 accepted the application of the lawyers for the suspended mayor of Chisinau Dorin Chirtoaca, whereby these requested that the Constitutional Court should raise the exception of unconstitutionality in the case of Article 33 of the Law on the Local Public Administration. The Court also upheld the decision of the ordinary court of law by which Dorin Chirtoaca was suspended from post, IPN reports.

Dorin Chirtoaca said they will furnish the Constitutional Court with evidence to show that the Buiucani branch of the Court of Chisinau on July 29 issued an illegal judgment at the request of prosecutors. “This way the Prosecutor’s Office abused its power. An error was made in the penal process according to Article 53 of the Constitution of the Republic of Moldova and the state answers for this,” stated the suspended mayor.

According to Dorin Chirtoaca, the method of suspending the mayor stipulated in Article 33 of the Law on the Local Public Administration is not included expressly in the Penal Procedure Code and the norms cannot be thus applied. “The only norm based on which someone can be suspended from post is Article 20 of the Penal Procedure Code, but this envisions the suspension of inferiors and stipulates that the suspension decision is taken by the administration of the institution at the request of the Prosecutor’s Office. In my case, not the administration took the decision,” he stated.

Dorin Chirtoaca’s lawyer Tatiana Iovu said that Article 33 of the Law on the Local Public Administration does not clearly provide who can make a request to court and how an eventual suspension can be challenged. “We are waiting for the Constitutional Court to decide if the norm based on which the mayor general was suspended is constitutional or not. If the Constitutional Court rules that the given norms are unconstitutional, the decision of the ordinary court will also be impacted,” stated the lawyer.

On August 10, the Buiucani branch of the Court of Chisinau is to examine the prosecutors’ request to extend the remand detention for Dorin Chirtoaca. He is now under house arrest.