As of October 9, the Chisinau Municipal Council will have a new member. The seat vacated by Oleg Onishchenko on his own initiative was occupied by the substitute candidate on the list of the Party of Socialists Valery Botea. This February, the Party of Socialists has excluded Oleg Onishchenko from its group on the CMC for multiple violations of decision taken by the group and the party. Onishchenko continued to serve on the CMC as an unaffiliated councilor, until September.

On October 10, Teo Carnat announced that he vacated his seat of member of the Superior Council of Magistracy. In its October 10 meeting, the Superior Council of Magistracy accepted the resignation tendered by Teo Carnat, the decision being submitted to Parliament for information. Teo Carnat said he renounced the seat because he failed the polygraph test for the post of president of the National Integrity Agency.

On October 10, the Superior Council of Magistracy approved the regulations concerning the method of publishing court judgments on the national portal of courts of law and on the website of the Supreme Court of Justice. Under the regulations, the conditions of publishing court decisions on the national portal of courts of law or on the website of the Supreme Court of Justice can be restricted in the interests of morality, public order or national security or for the purpose of protecting the private life of the parties in a trial, or to the extent to which the court considers necessary when the interests of justice are affected, in particular circumstances. The names of the parties involved in a trail will not be concealed in the court judgments that will be published, with some exceptions. While the meeting was being held, journalists and civic activists protested in front of the Superior Council of Magistracy against the proposal to make the names of persons involved in court cases secret. According to them, if the name, surname and other data of persons involved in trials are not be revealed, this will impede access to the published judgments.

The EU on October 10 announced that it will not transfer any further funds to the Moldovan state budget to support reforms in the justice sector. In a press release, the EU Delegation to Moldova said the EU has closely observed the reform process and noted that the Moldovan authorities showed insufficient commitment to reforming the justice sector in 2014 and 2015. With insufficient allocation of funds and personnel, the necessary reforms have not been carried out. As a result, progress has not been sufficient. This means that the Moldovan authorities have not fulfilled the EU’s conditions for receiving the last financial transfer under the justice reform program, which amount to €28 million. This sum will not be paid to the Moldovan state budget, but remain with the EU.

The President of Moldova Igor Dodon on October 10 paid a working visit to the Russian city of Sochi where he took part in the meeting of the CIS Council of Heads of State and the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council on October 10. While in Sochi, he also had meetings with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin and other high-ranking officials.

On October 11, the Cabinet suspended Maria Caraus from the post of deputy minister of finance at the request of the Prosecutor General’s Office. Maria Caraus was arrested on October 6 on suspicion of abuse of power manifested through the blackmailing of the administration of the National Clinical Hospital. She would have asked for a recompense for allocating 15 million lei in financing planned for the institution. Maria Caraus pleads not guilty. She has worked as deputy minister of finance since 2010. Earlier, she served as division head at the same Ministry.

Also on October 11, the Buiucani office of the Court of Chisinau municipality extended the warrant for the home arrest of mayor of Chisinau Dorin Chirtoaca, who was suspended from the post, for another 30 days. The court also rejected the lawyers’ request to suspend the examination of the case until after the November 19 referendum on Chirtoaca’s dismissal so that he could prepare for the plebiscite. Dorin Chirtoaca was arrested on May 25 in a case concerning parking spaces to be operated as part of what seemed to be an illegal scheme. Two days later he was placed under house arrest. The mayor has been charged with accepting bribes and influencing decisions for undue gains.

The Prosecutor’s Office for Organized Crime and Special Cases started a criminal case over the facts stated by the leader of the Party “Action and Solidarity” Maia Sandu in a denouncing statement against the Democratic leader Vlad Plahotniuc. On October 12, Maia Sandu was informed that she was classed as a witness. After a discussion with the prosecutor in charge of this case that lasted for almost 20 minutes, Maia Sandu told the journalists that she was familiarized with the Penal Code provisions about criminal liability for false statements.  She noted that this act by the Prosecutor’s Office is an attempt to intimidate her given that in the case of the denouncement they submitted earlier against President Igor Dodon, she received a response by mail.

On October 12, the Liberal-Democratic parliamentary group announced that it secured the support of MPs needed for examining the bill to amend article 13 of the Constitution. The bill allows for the substitution of the phrase “Moldovan language” with “Romanian language”. Before presenting it officially, the Lib-Dems will submit the bill to the Constitutional Court for appraisal. President Igor Dodon told the Russian press that he will block the given initiative. “The Socialists and the President will definitely not support it. I will block the initiative to modify the name of the official language,” stated Igor Dodon.

On October 13, the MPs and ministers came together for a joint meeting of the Parliament and Government. In the meeting it was noted that of the over 100 measures defined in the second roadmap that includes objectives of the national plan action for implementing the Association Agreement with the EU and the conditions imposed for receiving macro- financial assistance, 56 have been carried out. Eleventh measures are overdue, while the rest are to be implemented in October-December. Among the overdue measures is the ensuring of the functioning of the National Integrity Authority that does not yet have a president. The participants also discussed the steps that should be taken to obtain the macro-financial assistance of €100 million from the EU.

Selection by Alina Marin, IPN