Three judges of the Bălți Appeals Court, who are trying the case of murder in Elizaveta village, notified the Superior Council of Magistracy, complaining about the statements made by the ex-mayor of Bălți Renato Usatîi, who they consider harmed their honor and dignity. For its part, the Council decided to remit the notification to the Judicial Inspectorate, IPN reports.

SCM member Mariana Timotin said that judges Gheorghe Scutelnic, Oleg Moraru and Viorel Pușcaș consider they are slandered and their honor and dignity is harmed. The judges ask the Superior Council of Magistracy to assess Renato Usatîi’s actions, to intervene and react within the limits of the professional duties.

SCM decided to remit the notification to the Judicial Inspectorate, which is expected to present an informative not to the Council after examining this.

In the middle of July, the prosecutor general instituted disciplinary proceedings against eight judges who examined the case in which a carabineer shot dead a young man in Elizaveta and submitted these to the Superior Council of Magistracy. The Prosecutor General’s Office examined the procedural mistakes made by the judges and prosecutors involved in this case with the aim of determining the liability of each of these.

A man aged 23 was shot dead by an employee of the North Regional Division of the General Carabineer Inspectorate during a fight in Elizaveta village of Bălți municipality on January 13, 2020. The common law court sentenced him to 17 years in jail, but the Bălți Appeals Court decided to send the case back for retrial owing to a procedural mistake made by the judges of the ordinary court.