Iulian Bălan, the lawyer for Ilan Shor, in a press briefing at IPN, underlined the necessity of conducting a financial-accounting examination in the case of his client, saying the investigation body does not have the necessary accreditation.

“As the investigation body does not have the accreditation needed to determine the value in customs within criminal cases of smuggling and the appraisal of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry is need or as a report on the cause of death is needed from the Forensic Medicine Center in case of death, a more than complex financial-accounting examination is needed in our case,” explained the lawyer.

Iulian Bălan presented an analysis (taken from the website of the Supreme Court of Justice) of the length of trials, in particular of the trials in cases where judicial examinations or scientific assessments were needed. This way, the statistical report on the Supreme Court of Justice’s activity in criminal cases started against private individuals in 2019 shows that the trials in 7,700 of the 11,500 cases lasted longer than three years.

“It can be thus deduced that the length of the case for which public opinion is stirred up does not differ from the length in the rest of the cases examined by the courts in the Republic of Moldova and the allegations concerning delays are speculative, groundless and improper to the held posts,” stated the lawyer.

Iulian Bălan also said it is regrettable that persons holding high-ranking posts do justice from the TV screen or through social networking sites. He criticized Justice Minister Fadei Nagachevski’s comment, describing it as gross interference in justice. He noted the threats against courts of law definitely go against the principle of separation of powers in the state.

“We are witnesses to serious weakening of the independence of justice and to improper influence on the case of my client Ilan Shor,” concluded lawyer Iulian Bălan.