ECHR makes Moldovan Govt. present of minus 6.7 M euros

Moldova has lost the largest amount in its history in a trial judged by the European Court for Human Rights (ECHR). The Government has been obliged to pay over 6.7 million euros to the German company Unistar Ventures which which it had decided to set up an air carrier in 2000, but then started to hamper the company. “It's the present of the ECHR on the occasion of the International Day of Human Rights. It's one qualification more to the Communist performance in terms of respecting and promoting the fundamental human rights,” lawyer Vitalie Nagacevschi, who represented the plaintiff company in the Court, stated a news conference on Tuesday. The ECHR also ruled in favor of two insurance companies, Tudor-auto and Triplu-Tudor, to which the former finance minister Valeriu Chitan did not want, in 1999, to issue a type of certificates, although he was obliged to do so by court decisions. In this case, the companies and the Government have three months more to amiably talk about the damages, and Vitalie Nagacevschi says Tudor-auto claims over 7.5 million euros, while Triplu-Tudor -- 18.2 million euros. Referring to the case of the German company Unistar Ventures, barrister Vitalie Nagacevschi has said that “after the Communist Party won the parliamentary elections in 2001, the company started to face pressure on the part of different state bodies.” on June 19, 2002, using its 51% of votes, the State Agency of the Civil Aviation (ASAC) unilaterally dismissed the manager of Air Moldova. Unistar Ventures sued the dismissal decision on June 26, 2002, and that was the beginning of a series of trials in the Moldovan judiciary system, which lasted till 2007. On August 6, 2002, the Economic Court decided to cancel the contract on creating the joint company. The Germans asked the Government to return them those $2.3 million with with they participated in forming the equity of the company, what has never happened. Moreover, on April 6, 2006, the Judiciary Expertise National Center made a report concluding that the German company did not have the right to ask for the money from the Government. According to Nagacevschi, the ECHR criticized that conclusion of the Moldovan authorities. In April 2007, Unistar Ventures lodged its application with the ECHR and on December 9, 2008, the Court in Strasbourg ruled in its favor in the trial against the Moldovan Government. Up to now, the largest amount Moldova lost in a ECHR case was 2.5 million euros.