The Supreme Court of Justice today was supposed to examine the admissibility of Ilan Shor’s appeal through which the fugitive politician is seeking to overturn his 15 years’ imprisonment sentence. However, the hearing was postponed for an indefinite period after Shor’s lawyers submitted a recusal request.

The Supreme Court’s website does not mention whether the recusal targets the entire panel or a judge in particular.  

In June 2017, Shor was sentenced by a lower court to 7½ years in prison for his role in the 2014 bank fraud. Not only did he never serve a day of this sentence due to protracted appeals proceedings, the banker-turned-politician continued to occupy the post of Orhei mayor before going on to become a member of Moldova’s Parliament in 2019. Shortly after that he fled to Israel. Despite his absence, he won another MP’s term in the 2021 snap election. In April 2023, the Chisinau Court of Appeal finally upheld the conviction and increased the sentence to 15 years, following which Shor was stripped of his MP’s seat.