PLDM sues Ministry of Justice for defamation

The Liberal Democratic Party of Moldova (PLDM) brought a legal action against the Ministry of Justice for defamation, Info-Prim Neo reports. According to the first deputy president of the party Alexandru Tanase, in the documents that confirm the registration of the party, the Ministry of Justice calumniously and untruthfully invoked that some of the signatures of the PLDM members are false. The Ministry also implied that PLDM forged the documents in order to register the party. At a news conference, Alexandru Tanase said that these statements are false and that when the party’s management was informed about these irregularities, there was no report to support the given accusations. PLDM asked the court to summon the public broadcaster Teleradio Moldova Company and the television channel NIT, which broadcast the press release of the Ministry of Justice. According to PLDM, the television channels presented the information in an inadmissible manner, distorting the facts and without asking the party’s opinion. The party demanded that the court should class the information broadcast by the Ministry as calumny and oblige the two television channels to refute the statements publicly. The leaders of PLDM consider that the Ministry and the two broadcasters pursued the aim of discrediting the party. PLDM said that it has not yet managed to recover the over 12,600 applications of the PLDM members submitted to the Ministry of Justice, which are property of the party. PLDM officially asked the Ministry to give the applications back. If the applications are not returned, the party will sue the Ministry of Justice for this too, the party’s leader Vlad Filat said. The MP argues that many political organisations encountered hindrances when registering, some of them being obliged to follow the registration procedure up to the Supreme Court of Justice. PLDM was registered by the Ministry of Justice on January 25, 2007.