ECHR to urgently consider application of Ipteh shareholders

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has decided that the application lodged by the shareholders of SA Ipteh should be considered in priority regime, the Government having to present explanations as to those complaints till December 4. SA Ipteh and its stockholders have appealed to ECHR after the Moldovan judiciary annulled the privatization of SA Ipteh in 1999, and nationalized its main asset – the building on Stefan cel Mare ave., 65. SA Ipteh complains at the ECHR of breeching its right to a fair trial and the property right, Info-Prim Neo report. SA Ipteh's barrister Janeta Hanganu told a news conference on October 15 that the chairman of the ECHR chamber decided to consider the application urgently because of the severity of the violations and of possible political involvements in this case. According to Janeta Hanganu, the urgent consideration was also decided to prevent the possible sale of the building, since the Government decided on October 3 to include SA Ipteh into the sale list. SA Ipteh's shares are to be set for sale on November 5. “There was an illegal nationalization of property, as a range of procedural breeches were admitted when the General Prosecutor's Office started the probe 9 years after the privatization, after the national courts issued their final writ in 2001, declaring the privatization was legal. The court sessions were held without the stockholders from Romania, as the court refused to call them to the trial, thus breaking their right to defense,” the lawyer specified. According to Janeta Hanganu, the trial was judged by judges notorious for the their illegal writs favoring the Government, later lost at the ECHR. After the writs, the state took control of SA Ipteh and of the building on Stefan cel Mare ave., without paying a penny to the legitimate stockholders from UK and Romania. The president of the Liberal-Democratic Party (PLDM), Vlad Filat, who represents one of the shareholders, told the conference the trial was a political commission of Vladimir Voronin, meant to intimidate the PLDM and its leader. According to PLDM's deputy president Alexandru Tanase, the coming 6 months the Government may have to pay damages of over 1 billion lei for illegal nationalizations since the “Communists' regime is in power.” The damages related to the SA Ipteh case amount to some 700 million lei. A Romanian citizen, a British company and a Romanian company, represented by Vlad Filat, are among SA Ipteh's shareholders.