Moldova loses more money in a single case at ECHR than in all previously lost cases put together

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) on Tuesday, February 12, found Moldova guilty in three new cases, ordering it to pay the plaintiffs more than 2.55 million euros (about 42 million lei) for damages and expenses. In the case of “Oferta Plus v. Moldova” alone the sum of awarded damages tops 2.55 million euros, Info-Prim Neo reports. Between 1997-1998, the plaintiff Oferta Plus, a limited liability company, supplied electricity to Moldova, including to budget-funded institutions, which didn’t pay for a part of the consumed electricity. In 1999, the plaintiff obtained a judgment ordering the Ministry of Finance to pay a sum of 20 million lei. The judgment was upheld in 2001 by the Supreme Court of Justice, which made it irrevocable. However, the judgment delivered in 1999 was not enforced until 2003. In December 2003, the plaintiff agreed to a rescheduling scheme bounding the Ministry of Finance to repay the debt in ten months. The agreement was respected for only two and a half months, after which the plaintiff was informed that it was no longer valid. In April 2004, the plaintiff lodged a complaint with the European Court, notifying at the same time Moldova’s government agent to the ECHR and the Ministry of Finance. In response, the Ministry lodged a revision request with the Plenary Supreme Court of Justice, which on 12 July 2004 quashed by unanimous vote the previous judgment. Following a retrial in 2005, the Supreme Court of Justice dismissed all the claims of the plaintiff. At the request of the Ministry of Finance, in November 2004, the Prosecutor General’s Office initiated criminal proceedings against the plaintiff company on charges of large-scale embezzlement of state property. The proceedings were stopped for a certain period and then re-opened. Meanwhile, the head of the plaintiff company was held in detention for more than three months. In a judgment delivered on 19 December 2006 the European Court held that the judgment of 1999 had been quashed abusively and that the criminal proceedings had been initiated as a result of the complaint lodged by the plaintiff with the ECHR. On 4 January 2007, Oferta Plus lodged a revision request with the Supreme Court of Justice asking it to quash the judgment of 12 July 2004 and uphold the judgment of 1999. On 29 October 2007, the Court accepted the revision request, but held that the judgment of 1999 was never to be enforced on the ground that it was of bad faith. Today, the European Court ordered the Government to pay the plaintiff 2.5 million euros in respect of pecuniary damages, 25,000 euros for non-pecuniary damages, and 10,100 euros for costs and expenses. According to lawyer Vladislav Gribincea, who represented the plaintiff in the European Court, among the persons to share the blame for this defeat of Moldova are Deputy Prime Minister Zianida Grecianyi (the then Minister of Finance), Prosecutor General Valeriu Gurbulea (the then prime deputy to the Prosecutor General), and the incoming Moldova’s representative to the ECHR Mihai Poalelungi (Supreme Court Judge). So far, the Moldovan Government was found guilty in more than 110 cases examined in Strasbourg, being obliged to pay roughly 4.5 million euros (about 73.5 million lei) for damages.