The Supreme Court of Justice (CSJ) has rejected a request to review the case in which former Prime Minister Vlad Filat was sentenced to nine years in prison for influence peddling and passive bribery, IPN reports.

Vlad Filat was stripped of his parliamentary immunity in October 2015 and arrested right in the plenum of the parliament after businessman Ilan Sor filed a self-report with the prosecutor's office, claiming that he had offered the ex-premier $250 million and several goods in exchange for services.

In June 2016, the Buiucani branch of the Chisinau Court of Appeal sentenced him to nine years in prison, to be served in a closed penitentiary, and in November 2016, the Chisinau Court of Appeal upheld the sentence. In February 2017, the Supreme Court of Justice declared the appeals inadmissible as manifestly unfounded. Vlad Filat was released early, serving four years of a nine-year sentence.

In January 2023, the European Court of Human Rights found a lack of publicity in the criminal proceedings against the applicant. Following the ECHR judgment, Vlad Filat applied to the CSJ for a review of the case. According to the supreme court, the ECHR's decision relates to the publicity of the trial and did not concern procedural shortcomings that would raise doubts about the irrevocable decision on the indictment.

After the CSJ ruling, Vlad Filat wrote on Facebook that he anticipated such a solution. "The Supreme Court of Justice (Gribincea) rejected my request for review based on the ECHR judgment in an illegal, hallucinatory decision, adopted in the dark like thieves. I am going to present publicly the "Filat file", the reasons and the people who do not want my case to be re-examined in a public trial and the truth to be found out", warns former Prime Minister Vlad Filat.