Tamara Chișca-Doneva has stepped down as a Supreme Court judge after the Superior Council of the Judiciary on Friday partially accepted her resignation.  

The hearing of Chișca-Doneva’s resignation began with her request to recuse Superior Council member Nina Cernat. Chișca-Doneva argued that Cernat’s term expired after the Council was reshuffled. Following a brief deliberation, the recusal was rejected. Chișca-Doneva then went on to ask the Council to postpone hearing her resignation so that she could better prepare her defense. This request was also rejected.

What followed was a tense hearing. When asked about some controversial cases, including a few for which Moldova was fined by the European Court of Human Rights, Judge Chișca-Doneva said she had nothing to be ashamed of in any of those cases, nor in any other decisions that she had passed during her 36-year-long judicial career. She concluded by asking the Council to notify her formally of what it was going to decide and walked out.

The Council eventually approved Chișca-Doneva’s resignation in part, accepting her discharge from the Supreme Court.

Tamara Chișca-Doneva first took the bench in 1987 at the Hâncești District Court. She was then transferred to the Râșcani/Chisinau District before being promoted to the Chisinau Court of Appeals and ultimately to the Supreme Court of Justice. In 2021, she was appointed vice president of the Supreme Court, concurrently serving as its acting president.

In April 2022, Chișca-Doneva was suspended as interim president in connection with charges of illicit enrichment brought against her. While the charges were dropped in October 2022, the investigation is ongoing without Chișca-Doneva having a procedural status. This allowed her to get the post of acting Supreme Court president back in April 2023.