The candidacies of several magistrates proposed to President Maia Sandu for appointment as judges until they reach the age limit have been rejected by the head of state.

ZDG has obtained the document on the rejection of the 11 judges’ candidacies.

“Given the role of the President of the Republic of Moldova in fulfilling the mission of appointing judges, he is called upon to ensure in the last resort that all candidates proposed by the CSM meet the expectations of society in general and the legal requirements in particular, pursuant to Article 11 para. (3) of the Law on the Status of Judges, we reject the candidacies of Ms Ciobanu Galina, Ms Lavric Larisa and Ms Păduraru Irina and of Mr Botnaraș Viorel, Mr Beșelea Eugeniu, Mr Chirtoaca lon, Mr Ghedrovici Nicole, Mr Hudoba Valeriu, Mr Negreanu Igor, Mr Olărescu Victor and Mr Paniș Alexei, proposed to be appointed as judges until they reach the age limit,” the document reads.

Among the magistrates whose application for appointment was rejected is Judge Galina Ciobanu of the Chisinau Court of Appeals, which validated in November 2019 the local elections for Chisinau mayor, as well as the mayoral mandate of PSRM candidate Ion Ceban.

At the same time, the request of magistrate Alexei Panis, who ordered the reinstatement of Vladislav Clima as president of the Chisinau Court of Appeal (CA), was also rejected. Alexei Panis has been working as a magistrate at the Chisinau Court of Appeals since 2017. In 2021 ZdG wrote that Panis was part of the court panel that examined and issued the conclusion in the dispute between Vladimir Turcan and Domnica Manole for the head of the Constitutional Court. The lawsuit sparked a wave of reactions, as it was “a dispute that has never been seen before in the history of national jurisprudence”, as even the vice-president of the Chisinau Court, Corneliu Guzun, admitted. Alexei Panis is one of the magistrates who delivered the judgment in the case of Igor Vornicescu, the first defendant in the “Laundromat” case to receive his sentence. Although convicted, Vornicescu was released from criminal liability in connection with the occurrence of the statute of limitations for criminal liability.

Ion Chirtoaca has been a magistrate at the Chisinau Court of Appeals, Buiucani seat since 2016. In parallel, he works as a trainer at the National Institute of Justice and as a university lecturer at the “Ștefan cel Mare” Academy of the MAI. Chirtoaca is also a candidate for the position of member of the Superior Council of Magistracy (CSM).

The magistrate was a member of the panel of judges that examined the criminal case of the assassination attempt against Vladimir Plahotniuc. The Chisinau court convicted all the defendants in the case, but acquitted three of them on some of the charges brought by the prosecutors. However, the appeal court later overturned the first court’s decision and gave the defendants longer sentences. However, all the defendants in that case were finally acquitted last November.

In 2022, Chirtoaca bought a 68-square-metre apartment in a block of flats in the Ciocana sector of Chisinau, specially built for employees of the judicial system in the districts of Moldova. The property was purchased for 16 thousand euros, its market value being 50 thousand lei. In 2021, the magistrate sold an apartment of 38.4 square meters, acquired in 2010. Although in the previously submitted declarations of wealth and personal interests he declared the value of the apartment to be 195 thousand lei, the property was sold for 450 thousand lei. Since 2015, he has the right to live in an apartment written in the name of Lidia Chirtoaca, the judge’s mother. Chirtoaca reported last year a total salary of 251 thousand lei and debts of 100 thousand lei, after taking out a loan, due in 2022.

President Maia Sandu signs decree appointing 14 judges

On Monday 17 October, President Maia Sandu issued a decree appointing 14 judges, proposed to the head of state by the Superior Council of Magistracy (CSM).

“The judges in question are part of a list of 39 names, proposed to the head of state by the Superior Council of the Magistracy (CSM). In order to determine the degree to which the candidates meet the rigours of professionalism and integrity, the presidency requested information from several relevant public institutions.

Based on the evaluation, President Maia Sandu had previously rejected 13 of the candidates proposed by the CSM. Regarding the other 12, the conclusion is that some of them do not meet the necessary criteria to be judges, and for others there are still questions to be clarified at the CSM,” the Presidency announced in a statement.

In June this year, the Presidency rejected the appointment of some magistrates as judges until they reached the age limit. At that time, the Presidency sent a request to the Superior College of Magistrates (CSM) regarding the rejection of the applications of 13 judges, out of a total of 40 magistrates, for appointment as judges until they reached the age limit.

The Presidency’s request states that the applications of the 13 magistrates for appointment to office until they reach the age limit were mainly rejected on the grounds of disciplinary sanctions imposed on some magistrates.

CSM member Anatolie Galben told ZdG that the CSM has received the Presidency’s request regarding the rejection of the candidates of the 13 magistrates. Anatolie Galben also told us that the 13 judges can submit to the CSM a repeated application for appointment as judges until they reach the age limit, and the second time the Moldovan president cannot reject their candidacies.