Court lifts freeze order on municipality cars

The Centru District Court has annulled the decision of the Justice Ministry's Enforcement Department to levy a distress upon the transport owned by the Chisinau City Hall and the City Council, Info-Prim Neo reports. According to the City Hall's PR division, the court accepted the recourse by the local authorities challenging the writ of attachment issued on April 4, whereby distress was levied upon 12 vehicles belonging to the municipality, in order to secure the satisfaction of a host of judgments issued since 1998. The court ruled in favor of the local authorities observing that the City Hall's assets cannot be seized as these are public property. The Ministry of Justice resorted to distress after the municipality had delayed for ten years the satisfaction of a number of judgments granting dwelling to some 140 policemen, prosecutors and judges. The intention was to collect the money needed for the apartments from selling the municipality's cars. Earlier, Chisinau Mayor Dorin Chirtoaca has complained that, by seizing the transport operated by the municipality, the central authorities are trying to hinder the activity of the local authorities and push the municipality into insolvency. Deputy Mayor Mihai Furtuna said at the time of the seizure that it's not the local administration's duty to provide law enforcement officers with dwelling - the law says ministries and departments should take care of it.