Ilan Shor, chairman of the “Shor” party, must publicly admit that he lied and distributed false information about Moldovan President Maia Sandu. “For lying and defamation”, Șor must pay the president 50 thousand lei in compensation.

Judges of the Chisinau Court of Appeal (CA) rejected the appeal filed by fugitive MP Ilan Shor, sentenced in 2017 to seven years and six months in prison for fraud and money laundering and put on international wanted list, against the decision of the Chisinau Court, Centre Branch, which ordered him to publicly apologise to Moldovan President Maia Sandu for “lying and defamation”, with payment of moral damages of 50 thousand lei.

At the same time, the civil, commercial and administrative disputes panel of the CA, composed of magistrates: Ana Panov, Olga Cojocaru and Marina Anton, decided to uphold the judgment of the first court, which, in 2021, obliged Ilan Shor to publicly deny “false information that Maia Sandu had received money in an envelope and to pay her compensation in the amount of 50 thousand lei”.

According to the decision of the Court of Appeal, published on 18 October this year, but handed down in July, “the assertions made publicly by the appellant seriously damage the image of the respondent, so that their false and defamatory nature justifies the award of the sum of 50 000 lei by way of compensation for non-material damage, an amount which the College considers to be proportionate to the seriousness of the unlawful act committed by the appellant in relation to the respondent”.

“(…) Given that the trial court correctly applied the rules of substantive and procedural law, the appellate court found the decision of the trial court to be lawful, the appellant’s arguments to the contrary being fully countered by the conclusions set out above, the Civil College concludes to dismiss the appeal and uphold the decision of the trial court,” the document states.

The decision is final, but can be appealed to the Supreme Court of Justice (CSJ) within 2 months through the CSJ.

On January 21, 2021, the Chisinau Court, Center seat, ordered Ilan Shor to “publicly deny the false information that Maia Sandu received money in an envelope and pay her compensation in the amount of 50,000 lei”. The court ruled that Șor must publish the following texts on his Facebook page.

“I, Ilan Shor, declare that I lied when I made on June 6, 2018 on my facebook page the statement that Maia Sandu took money in an envelope from Vlad Filat. This statement does not correspond to the truth”.

“I, Ilan Shor declare that I lied when I made on June 7, 2018 on my facebook page the statement that Maia Sandu, before the Government examined the issue of granting the second installment for the three banks that were robbed, had discussed this subject with someone known to me. This statement does not correspond to the truth”.

Shortly after the court’s decision, Ilan Shor said he would appeal the decision in higher courts and suggested to the President of Moldova “not to rejoice before her time”.

Subsequently, Șor appealed the first instance decision to the Chisinau Court of Appeal, requesting “the annulment of the contested decision and the issuance of a new decision dismissing the action”.

President Maia Sandu sued Ilan Șor after “Șor” Party chairman Ilan Șor said in 2018 that he was sending her “imposing sums” in envelopes when Maia Sandu was education minister.

“Dear Maia! First of all, I understand your hatred towards Marina, who is young, beautiful and has achieved results in tennis. (…) You have to understand: I know how much Filat paid you in an envelope every month, as a salary surplus. And it was me who put the money in the envelope, before he sent it to you”, Ilan Șor wrote in 2018 on a social network, statements that Șor could not prove in court.