The Chișinău court decided on October 6 to remove from the register the lawsuit against ZdG filed by Igor Dodon, the former president of Moldova. In January 2020, ZdG published the investigation ”President’s Luxurious Vacations” in which we reported how Igor Dodon, whose accounts, in the last 15 years, were officially funded only from the state budget, had during this period luxury holidays in exotic areas.

After the former head of state went to court in 2020, dissatisfied with a few sentences from the “The President’s Luxurious Vacations“ investigation, his lawyer appeared only at the first hearing, and Dodon – at none. At the last two meetings, the legal representative of the former head of state did not show up, unjustifiably. In these circumstances, the court ordered the removal of the application from the register.

President Igor Dodon Sues ZdG

On October 6, the seventh meeting of the Igor Dodon v ZdG trial took place, and the ex-president’s request for the defense of honor, dignity, and professional reputation was to be examined. After both Igor Dodon and his legal representative did not appear at the hearing, being summoned legally, without communicating to the court the reasons for their absence, ZdG lawyer, Ludmila Ouș, requested the removal of the application from the register.

In the context in which the court found that Oleg Tănase, the lawyer of the former president, received the summons on June 29, 2021, but did not present any evidence to confirm the impossibility of his presentation at the hearing, according to the Code of Civil Procedure, the court accepted the request of ZdG’s lawyer to be removed the lawsuit from the register.

Former President Igor Dodon sued ZdG in March 2020. The then head of state demanded the denial of some phrases that appeared in the investigation “The President’s Luxurious Vacations“, published in January 2020.

The former president asked the court to consider the following statements to be false and defamatory and to harm his honor, dignity, and professional reputation: “At least in 2018, the president’s family was accommodated in one of the most luxurious hotels in the Greek peninsula Halkidiki: Pomegranate Wellness Spa Hotel. In fact, the president would have been accommodated in a luxury villa located on the territory of the hotel, where only one night of accommodation can cost even 20,000 euros.” However, Igor Dodon did not specify which information in this sentence is false: year, hotel name, or price for one night.

ZdG mentions that, until the publication of the article, we asked the president for information about the 2018 holiday. In the question, we mentioned the name of the hotel, and the head of state did not deny that he was staying in that hotel villa. Moreover, the Presidency stated that holiday expenses, including accommodation, were “covered by one of the President’s close relatives.” The prices for one night accommodation in the villa on the territory of this hotel, exposed in the article, were taken from the official website of the accommodation unit. The former president also complained that the publication of images from his luxury holidays in the Maldives and Seychelles, during his time as a deputy, would have violated his right to privacy.

In January 2020, ZdG published an investigation in which we reported how the politician Igor Dodon, whose accounts, in the last 15 years, were officially funded only from the state budget, had during this period luxury holidays in exotic areas.

The President’s Luxurious Vacations