Since this February, when the case of the ex-president of the Administration Board of Banca de Economii Ilan Shor, the mayor of Orhei, was transferred to the Cahul Appeals Court, two hearings have been held. In a response to an injury made by IPN, the Court said the procedure is now at the judicial examination stage and the next hearing was scheduled for August 8. The Court also said the legislation does not stipulate concrete trial deadlines, but provides that the examination should be performed within a reasonable timeframe.

It has been over a year since Ilan Shor was convicted for causing damage to the state by swindle and abuse of trust. The Buiucani branch of the Chisinau City Court on June 21, 2017 passed a judgement by which the current mayor of Orhei was sentenced to seven years and a half in jail. The same day, Ilan Shor was released from house arrest and will be under judicial control until a definitive sentence is given to him.

The sentence of the first court was appealed by the prosecution and the defense and by the representative of SA Banca de Economii. The case reached the Chisinau Appeals Court  in only six months given that this had to be translated from Romanian into Russian, as it was invoked. In February the case was transferred to the Cahul Appeals Court based on a decision taken by the Supreme Court of Justice at the request of the president of the Chisinau Appeals Court Ion Plesca.

In its response to IPN, the Cahul Appeals Court said they received the criminal case against Ilan Shor on February 12, 2018. According to the Integrated Case Management Program, the case was registered on February 13 and two hearings have been held so far. The next hearing will take place on August 8, starting at 11am. The case is tried by a panel that consists of judges Nina Veleva, Evgeni Dvurechenskii and Vitalie Movila. The last heads the panel.

Earlier, representatives of the PAS, PPPDA and PLDM said the reasons for the transfer of the case of Ilan Shor to the Cahul Appeals Court  are not credible. According to them, one of the goals of such a move was to prevent the press from attending the hearings in this case given that Cahul is situated far from Chisinau.