The lawyers for Veaceslav Platon consider the criminal case against their client was transmitted to the panel of judges by violating the random case distribution method. As a result, the case didn’t reach an independent and impartial court. Therefore, all the judgments passed by these judges in the case of Platon are illegal, including the sentence.
In a news conference at IPN, lawyer Ivan Cretu said that on November 18, 2016, the case was distributed to judge Ion Morozan, who asked for abstention. His request was examined on November 21, at 12:46, and was accepted. As a result, the case was transmitted to Galina Moscalciuc the same day, at 1:04pm. From Galina Moscalciuc, the case was passed on to Sergiu Lazari, at 2:08pm, but the abstention request of Galina Moscalciuc was examined only at 15:05pm. Later, from Sergiu Lazari the case was transferred to Vitalie Budeci, at 2:52, while his abstention request was examined at 5:16pm. Thus, the case was transmitted to judges first and the abstention requests were introduced later so as to create legal appearances.
Lawyer Valeriu Plesca said a number of norms that regulate the random court case distribution process were violated. Consequently, the trial is equal to zero and the case should be retried.
Lawyer Eduard Rudenko noted that the basic human rights in the case of Veaceslav Platon were violated not only by ignoring the random case distribution system, but also by limiting the lawyers’ access to court minutes and by holding hearings in the absence of the plaintiff. According to unofficial sources, the same manipulation procedure was used in the cases of Vlad Filat and Dorin Chirtoaca.
The lawyers said they found out about these violations only after they received the proceedings of hearings, when the case of Veaceslav Platon was already at the Appeals Court. The Buiucani Court rejected their request to allow them to see the proceedings earlier. These violations should be investigated by the prosecution bodies.
Businessman Veaceslav Platon was arrested in July 2016 on swindle and money laundering charges. This April he has been sentenced to 18 years in jail.
