The Constitutional Court (CC) rejected as inadmissible the Șor Party MPs’ request to determine the constitutionality of the Parliament decision to declare the seat of MP held by Ilan Șor vacant, IPN reports.

The authors consider Parliament adopted the challenged decision without having any legal basis and erroneously implemented the CC decision of January 20, 2015, which says that a person cannot hold the seat of MP if this was convicted by a final and irrevocable judgment. In fact, no irrevocable conviction decision has been passed against Ilan Șor yet as the Chisinau Appeals Court’s sentence can be challenged in the Supreme Court of Justice.

The MPs of the Șor Party also said that by its judgment, the Chisinau Appeals Court didn’t ban Ilan Șor from holding public posts and, if the Supreme Court of Justice quashes this judgment, the seat of MP could no longer n be restored. This way, the right of equal access to justice and the right of effective remedy are violated.

In its decision, the CC argued that among the reasons of incompatibility for an MP are the sentencing to jail by definitive court judgment and the existence of non-served sentences for offenses committed with intent. Consequently, the unfavorable consequences of the definitive conviction sentence continue until the sentence is served or until rehabilitation.

Also, the Court could not ascertain the applicability of the constitutional principle of presumption of innocence as Parliament didn’t pronounce on the guilt of the MP and only took note of the Chisinau Appeals Court’s decision of April 13, 2023 against MP Ilan Șor, by which this was found guilty.

The given CC decision is definitive, cannot be challenged, takes effect when it is adopted and is published in the Official Gazette.

In June 2017, Ilan Shor was sentenced to seven years and a half in jail for causing damage to the state by swindle and abuse of trust. Ilan Shor was stripped of parliamentary immunity for several times, including after the elections of July 2021. In the last legislature, he didn’t attend any sitting of Parliament.

The leader of the Șor Party Ilan Șor remained without the seat of MP after Parliament took note of the Chisinau Appeals Court’s decision by which the politician was sentenced to 15 years in jail. By its definitive decision of April 13, the Chisinau Appeals Court sentenced Ilan Șor to 15 years behind bars for swindle and money laundering in the bank fraud case and banned him from holding posts in the banking sector for a period of five years and ordered to levy a sum of 5.2 billion lei on the politician.