The judges in the Republic of Moldova are afraid to examine politically sensitive cases. The avoidance of trying such cases clearly shows that the judged are not fully independent in this county, jurist Vlad Gribincea, who heads the Legal Resources Center, stated in an interview for Radio Free Europe, referring to the Supreme Court of Justice’s decision to transfer the case of the mayor of Orhei Ilan Shor, who is accused of fraud and money laundering in considerable amounts, to the Cahul Appeals Court.
Asked if transferring cases is a usual practice, Vlad Gribincea said the Supreme Court of Justice periodically formulates such requests when none of the judges in the court that should try the case can do it. The Chisinau Appeals Court has almost 60 judges, 21 of whom are specialized in criminal cases. “The point is that it is a widespread practice to transfer judges specialized in other areas to judge criminal cases. It is a widespread practice and the administration of the Chisinau Appeals Court didn’t explain why it didn’t involve judges specialized in other areas, for example. A judge could have been assigned to work together with the two penal judges who were competent to try the case of Shor,” stated the jurist.
The head of the Legal Resources Center considers there is something abnormal here. First, the translators didn’t manage to translate the judgment on time. Now the judges of the Chisinau Appeals Court do not want to judge the case. “The case against Shor was started in 2015, if I’m not mistaken. It was started before the case against Platon or the case against Filat. The case of Filat and the case of Platon were completed even if they were started later and the persons serve time in jail. The case of Shor in which Mister Shor seems to have accepted his blame and the case is thus rather simple is delayed – it was sent to court much later and was examined during a longer period of time,” stated Vlad Gribincea, noting he considers the judges are afraid to try such a case.
“And this is not true only about the case of Shor. This was seen also in the cases of Filat and Platon and in other politically sensitive cases. A lot of judges refused to try the cases. It is a clear sign that the judges are not fully independent in this country,” stated the jurist.
Asked if the decision to transfer the Shor case is not treated selectively, Vlad Gribincea said it seems not to be as the case of Shor was transferred to Cahul for the reason that the judges also took part in the examination of the case of Platon and were thus incompatible.
Journalistic observations show that in society this story is regarded as suspect and the people consider the goal is to acquit the culprit, said the author of the interview, asking Vlad Gribincea to comment on these speculations. According to the jurist, these appearances, if they are logical at least to some extent, cannot increase confidence in justice. “The justice sector managers say they want to increase confidence in justice. By such acts they actually thwart any effort to make the justice sector more trusted,” he stated.
