On September 23^rd, the ECHR has sentenced for the 43^rd time the Republic of Moldova for the non-execution of judicial decisions. This time, the Government will pay over 33 thousand Euros to a former deportee. Ten years ago, the Orhei court compelled the Local Council to give Boris Prepelita his house back, confiscated by the soviet authorities. It was only in the Court of Strasbourg that this case was solved.

After they are victorious on papers, tens of thousands of Moldovan citizens cannot turn their right gained in the court of justice into reality. This happens due to the fact that the Republic of Moldova has lost at the ECHR one third of its conviction trials. Most of the people, however, never reach the Strasbourg Court, as they are trying instead, to seek justice in the national courts. Some of them can’t hold on any longer. For example, the 97-year-old Irina Cretu from Sangerei passed away in August 2008, waiting for the legal verdict stated in her favor two years ago to be executed.

After a land fund litigation issued two years ago, Irina Cretu won 2000 lei at the court, an important sum for her at that time. The old lady was 95 then. “Throughout these two years, the Office of Execution has not taken any action to implement the court’s decision”, the daughter-in-law of the dead woman, Tamara Cretu, who has proven her mother-in-law’s rights, told us. The woman also mentions that, for two years, she has complained to various authorities. “The court executors all said that so far, they were not able to find Arcadie Tarus, the one who rented the pieces of land”, Tamara Cretu adds.

Lilia Scorici, Head of the Sangerei Office of Execution, confirmed for Ziarul de Garda that the executors have not found Tarus. “He is a person with problems”, she told us. “He has to execute 30 court decisions. There is no property registered on his name”, she also added. Due to this circumstance, Irina Cretu’s executory titles will be returned to the court of law.  “However, he can still show up for the execution anytime during the following three years”. This is how it actually happened before”, Lilia Scorici says.

The Government has not contributed to the executions of judicial decisions

Irina Cretu was not able to go to ECHR. Many citizens, however, turn to the Court of Strasbourg, if they are not able to put their right into practice. By the end of July 20^th, 2008, there were 42 cases of non-execution or late execution of court orders, which is one third out of all the Court’s sentences against the Republic of Moldova. Those over 40 lost cases at ECHR come as consequences to the non-execution court orders regarding the retrocession of nationalized real estate, payment of money, providing living space, giving a lot of land or reemployment. They also include the removal of a person from the complainers’ flat, demolishing an illegal construction, the impossibility of executing a court order for a money payment from an enterprise to the complainer, after the firm’s liquidation and transfer of its properties to a state enterprise, without payment of debts.

The Ministry of Justice holds no information on the executory titles

As far as the non-execution of decisions, politician Alexandru Lipcan requested from the Ministry of Justice some information on the number of executory titles issued in the past two years to the ministries and other central public authorities. The politician also requested some information on the people in charge of the central public authorities, who were fined by the court executors for ignoring them, as well as the legal cases filed against the people in charge in central authorities. All of the answers to the questions from Lipcan’s demand state: “The information requested cannot be presented due to the fact that, according to the legislation, recording is not mandatory”. According to the same reply, the only information is that “during 2006-2007, 5196 cases of executory titles were registered». “I am aware of the fact that the non-execution of court orders carry a lot of people from door to door”, Alexandru Lipcan says. “Although this detail is problematic, it is a paradox that the information delivered by the Ministry of Justice is very vague”, Lipcan added.

City halls woke up in a vicious circle

Attorney Vlad Gribincea from Jurists for Human Rights Organization, says 30% of the ECHR decisions relate mainly to the non-execution of judicial decisions. “Most of the cases of non-execution cover the time period before 2003. At the end of 2003, the Ministry of Finance executed around 20 thousand executory titles in one month. The situation improved in the case of the Ministry of Finance, while most of the current problems are connected to the public local administration. The budget of these institutions doesn’t stipulate any expenses for the execution of court orders. It is actually a vicious circle. The financing criteria set by the Ministry of Finance do not include the execution of judicial decisions.

What is happening? The court order is not executed. The case is sent to Strasbourg. The Court’s decision is communicated to the Government. The amount that the Government must pay is communicated to the Ministry of Finance. Then the money is transferred to the local public authorities to take care of the matter”, Vlad Gribincea explains. According to the jurist, another aspect relates to the inaction of the executory titles who take no measures in making the “non-authorities” pay their debts to the person who won a trial.

In one case it is the executors’ fault, in 41 – the others’ fault

Out of the 42 ECHR sentences for the non-execution of judicial rulings, representatives from the Execution Department of the Ministry of Justice admit their blame in only one case: Grivneac vs. Moldova. In this case, the Court has come to the conclusion that, during 7 years, the Government has not fulfilled its obligation to contribute to the execution of a court order ruled in the favor of Grivneac. Director of the Execution Department, Valeriu Devderea, says that the biggest problem in the non-execution of court orders is that the action is not ensured. “When someone wants to solve matters judicially, almost everyone has the goal to see only the court order”, Devdere says.  “The problem lies in the citizens’ ignorance to do everything possible just to be sure of the court orders’ execution. This happens many times because of ignorance. Many times, they ask for help, without an attorney, in the wrong places”, he also explains. According to the director, the executor is an instrument used for defending the right defended by the law. “Usually, the people who have a court order in their favor, come to the executorial offices and throw the decision on the executor’s desk, without thinking of consequences”, Devdere adds. According to him, in the first half of 2008, the 392 executors of the Republic of Moldova had to solve 185 thousand executory titles. “Of them, only 10 thousand were not executed, which is a small number compared to the total of almost 200 thousand titles”, Devdere says.

According to the experts of the Center for Analysis and Prevention of Corruption (CACP), the non-execution of court orders is due to the insufficient responsibility of judicial executors. “This profession calls for a special reaction to what’s going on in the dossier”, Galina Bostan from the CACP explains. “The executors should be rather agile and quick when executing the court decisions. The truth is that this profession is dangerous, especially when the debtor, the one who owes some goods, turns out to be more powerful than the executor. Under these conditions, the salary is also not very motivating. Maybe these are the reasons why the executor may make a deal with the debtor on postponing the execution of the judicial decision”, Galina Bostan added.

Published in Romanian on September 25 2008

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