Two former judges and a current judge complained they were intimidated by their superiors because they refused to obey the instruction and pass illegal judgments. These are ex-judges Domnica Manole and Ludmila Ouș of the Chisinau City Appeals Court and judge of inquiry of the Ciocana branch of the Chisinau City Court Mihai Murguleț. In the program “Politics of Natalia Morari” on TV8 channel, these said they received instructions in particular cases that they refused to obey and this led to intimidation and pressure against them, IPN reports.
Ludmila Ouș said she tendered her resignation from the post of judge of the Chisinau City Appeals Court because she could no longer stand the pressure to which she had been subject during three years. The pressure and intimidation on the part of the Court’s president intensified when she became a member of the panel of judges in the case of ex-Premier Vlad Filat.
“When we started to examine the case of Filat and he saw that I didn’t realty accept the administration’s requests, I no longer received instructions, but began to be pressed and intimidated until I was invited to his office (of Ion Pleșca, e.n.) on November 2, 2016 and was asked if I realized what I was doing,” stated the former judge.
Ludmila Ouș noted the criminal case started against her later was fabricated by order of the president of the Chisinau City Appeals Court Ion Pleșca, Anticorruption Prosecutor Adriana Bețișor and former Prosecutor General Eduard Harunjen.
Judge Mihai Morguleț also said that he was subject to pressure after he refused to issue documents that he considered illegal. He didn’t specify what documents he meant, but noted that he wrote about this in the informative note he transmitted to the Superior Council of Magistracy after whose examination the managers of the Centru branch were dismissed and the president of the Supreme Court of Justice Ion Druță was suspended.
Domnica Manole, who was removed from the judicial system after she annulled the Central Election Commission’s decision to ban the holding of the referendum requested by the Dignity and Truth Platform, said the situation in which she and other judges found themselves is used to scare the other judges from the system. “The judges were banned from discussing with me, talking to me over the phone, on the street,” stated the ex-judge.
According to her, the judges in Moldova do not have where to seek justice as the Superior Council of Magistracy turned into a body that exerts pressure on judges. Furthermore, the judicial inspection obeys the Council, as do the Assessment Board and the Disciplinary Board.
The moderators of the program said more judges who will make revelations about the situation created in the judicial system and decision makers who allegedly created and implemented an illegal pressure exerting mechanism and encroached upon the independence of judges in the interests of representatives of the former government will be invited to the talk show.
