Judge Mihail Ciugureanu will not suffer the punishment asked by Minister of Justice Oleg Efrim. The Supreme Council of Magistrates Tuesday upheld a previous decision of the Council, ruling that the minister’s request was unfounded, Info-Prim Neo reports. Mihail Ciugureanu was accused by the minister of violating at least the Ethics Code when he accepted his colleague Grigore Zubati to take a decision in his favor. According to the Ministry of Justice, in 2008 Mihail Ciugureanu appealed to the Administrative Bard of the Chisinau Court of Appeals, which obliged the Chisinau Municipal Council to distribute a plot on which to erect a house. The judge asked the Chisinau Court of Appeals to change the method of implementing the earlier decision, obtaining the ownership right over 670 square meters of land in the residential quarter situated on Avicena – Nicolae Testemitanu streets. Grigore Zubati also ordered registering this right in the Real Estate Register without waiting for the approval of the Chisinau Municipal Council, which is the only authority that can take decisions as regards the sale, privatization or leasing out of municipal property. In a communiqué issued earlier, the Ministry of Justice said the two judges didn’t respect the provision that obliges them to inform the president of the Chisinau Court of Appeals or the Supreme Council of Magistrates about a possible conflict of interests. In such a situation, the Supreme Court of Justice was to decide which court should have examined the appeal filed by Mihail Ciugureanu. Mihai Ciugureanu told the press that he couldn’t obtain that plot that belongs to him lawfully for 12 years and that the Chisinau Municipal Council had continuously postponed taking a decision in this respect. The Supreme Council of Magistrates decided to dismiss judge Grigore Zubati, and President Nicolae Timofti recently signed a decree to this effect.