The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) passed its judgment in the case of Vlad Filat, noting that the ex-Premier didn’t enjoy a fair trial. “This moment has been waited for seven years and four months. This is the period since that plot of October 15, 2015 that was followed by so-called criminal proceedings. I need to make mentions here as a lot is being said, but no exact data are being provided. In my case, the whole trial up to conviction lasted for exactly eight months. Not seven years, not eight years, as in other cases, but exactly eight months: detention, arrest and the so-called trial that resulted in my conviction that I always considered unfair. It was based on an inequitable trial as one of the most important principles, the right to a fair trial by open courts, was not respected,” Vlad Filat stated in a news conference hosted by IPN.
According to him, the fact that the hearings weren’t public led to the violation of a series of basic human rights and freedoms. “I was tried by an unfair trial in which I was unable to prove my innocence. I served that sentence that was ordered by captured courts of law, as everyone said and as it was noted by a Parliament decision of 2019,” said Vlad Filat. The former Premier underlined that he was held in inhuman and degrading conditions for 50 months and was later put on probation.
He said that a lot has been said about the oligarchic governments and the state capture, primarily the capture of the judicial system and the prosecution service. But everything amounted to discussions only despite that Parliament decision of 2019, which envisioned the taking of concrete actions.
According to Vlad Filat, a number of situations disqualify the current government. “When you say that the justice system was captured, you need to say who captured this system. It seems that we have an answer – Plahotniuc, who is a fugitive, and his allies. You should further clearly say who captured the judiciary, the prosecution service and other law enforcement agencies. The answer is evident – through the agency of prosecutors. I would not say that all the prosecutors as it may seem strange, but there are appropriately trained prosecutors who do their job in the Republic of Moldova, but these are not those to whom some of those who now manage the Prosecutor’s Office refer. If particular prosecutors served as instruments in state capture, what happens to those prosecutors? I want to tell you that most of them continue holding their posts and some of them were even promoted to executive posts,” said the ex-Premier, noting that some of the judges who took decisions that led to the capture of the justice system have kept their posts.
Vlad Filat noted the existence of victims is the last, most important aspect in this situation and nothing has been said about these persons who suffered due to that situation in justice. No victim of that selective, politicized justice was rehabilitated. But those persons should have been offered legal possibilities, by a special norm, to prove their innocence as part of fair trials.
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