A number of nongovernmental organizations demand that the trial of ex-Prime Minister Vlad Filat should be public. In this regard, the NGOs made a call to judges, saying the further examination of this case in hearings held behind closed doors will only fuel suspicions about the inequity of procedures and politicization of the solution, IPN reports.

The signatory organizations say the examination of this case in public is very important for increasing the people’s confidence in justice, clarifying the situation about the theft of the billion and ensuring the right to a fair trial of the persons prosecuted in this case.

According to them, the information that was made public does not explain the prosecution’s motivation and insistence of examining this case behind closed doors. “Moldova risks again to be convicted by the European Court of Human Rights for violating the right to a fair trial, if this case continues to be examined behind closed doors,” said the NGOs.

The signatories include Amnesty International Moldova, Promo-LEX, the Foreign Policy Association, the Legal Resources Center, the Institute for Public Policy and Transparency International Moldova.