Deputy mayor of Chisinau municipality Vlad Cotet is obliged to pay about 20,000 lei to the state. In a press release, the Ministry of Justice says the decision was taken by the Buiucani Court of Chisinau, which accepted the Ministry’s request to collect this payment.

The civil lawsuit was examined in a public hearing on October 25. The decision can be challenged in the Chisinau Appeals Court within 30 days.

Contacted by IPN, head of the Ministry’s protocol, information and mass media service Rodion Gustiuc said that in 2007, a citizen of Chisinau municipality asked for a social apartment as he had 18 years of seniority in military service at a time when the law stipulates a period of 15 years of seniority for being eligible to social housing. At the request of the plaintiff, the Appeals Court obliged the Chisinau Municipal Council to give him an apartment, but the municipality appealed the decision to the highest court. The Supreme Court of Justice maintained the decision of the Appeals Court.

The court decision was implemented in two years because the deputy mayor didn’t sign the order to provide the social apartment, even if this existed. Meanwhile, the plaintiff went to the ECHR, which obliged the state to pay 20,000 lei damages to the service member. The Ministry of Justice went to court to recover the damage.

Minister of Justice Vladimir Cebotari’s initiative to make the judges, prosecutors and functionaries who are responsible for Moldova’s conviction by the ECHR to repay the damages paid by the state was launched this January.

Currently, Vlad Cotet is held on remand on charges of corruption, traffic of influence and abuse of power and is investigated in a case together with other officials of the Chisinau City Hall. The case was sent to court at the start of September.