The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) passed its judgment in the case of Furtună versus Moldova, obliging the state to pay over €75,000 damages to the applicant after the Bălți Court of Appeal accepted an appeal after a seven-year period. The applicant’s lawyer Inna Soțchi voiced hope that this judgment will serve as a judiciary precedent for justice in the Republic of Moldova as it clarifies the security of judicial relations and how an appeal can be allowed after seven years of the execution of a court judgment.
In a news conference at IPN, Inna Soțchi, who heads the law firm “Bivol Soțchi & Partners”, noted that this ECHR judgment is important for the judiciary precedent and for the whole legal system. In 2006, the applicant won the case by a final judgment and was awarded damages. However, in 2013 this was abusively quashed as a result of an appeal lodged out of time. After the quashing and before the Supreme Court of Justice had had a chance to annul the quashing, the enforcement of the above initial judgment was reversed and the defendant quickly disposed of all its property.
The Supreme Court of Justice restored the initial judgment, but to no avail because the applicant was never able to recover his money. The judgment of the Bălţi Court of Appeal of 16 May 2013 was adopted by a panel of judges which was different from that which had conducted the hearings in the proceedings. The ECHR noted that the ruling by the Supreme Court of Justice of 6 March 2014 did not provide full relief for the applicant because he has never been able to recover what he had lost as a result of the decisions of the Bălţi Court of Appeal of 16 May and 2 July 2013 which had been abuses. In such circumstances, the Court considers that the applicant continues to be a victim of those abuses.
Inna Soțchi said the application to the ECHR was filed immediately after the judgment to extend the time limit for lodging the appeal was passed. They submitted all the proofs, assessments, reports compiled by certified evaluators to the ECHR and this case was minutely described by the High Court.
The news conference titled “Case of Furtună against Moldova from the angle of security of juridical relations. Why was the Republic of Moldova convicted by the ECHR and who answers for this?” forms part of the series of conferences held in the framework of IPN’s project “Injustice Revealed through Multimedia”. The project’s partner is the Lawyers Union of Moldova. IPN Agency does not assume the right to decide if the organizers of news conferences are right in the cases about which they will speak as this is the exclusive prerogative of justice, but the exaggeratedly long examination period of these cases, which is much longer than the law allows, can be considered an act of evident unfairness and injustice. IPN News Agency does not bear responsibility for the public statements made in the public sphere by the organizers of news conferences.
