A new conviction at the ECHR. Moldova to pay €3 900 for unlawful deprivation of liberty of businessman Valentin Esanu

Moldova must pay businessman Valentin Esanu the sum of €3,900 – moral damages, as well as €2,464 in costs and expenses.

The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) partially admitted on 31 January 2023 Valentin Esanu’s complaint which concerns “the deprivation of liberty of the applicant pending trial on several charges, for a total period of twenty-two months, in the absence of relevant and sufficient grounds, ordered and prolonged in violation of the principle of equality of the parties”.

“The Court declares admissible the complaints under Article 5 § 3 of the Convention concerning the applicant’s detention in the first and third sets of proceedings and under Article 5 § 4 of the Convention and inadmissible the other complaints,” according to the ECtHR judgment.

Valentin Eșanu claimed €50,000 for non-material damage and €2,464 for costs and expenses before the Court. The Government argued that the amounts claimed were unfounded and excessive.

The Court therefore decided that the State should pay Valentin Eșanu the sum of €3 900 for non-material damage and €2 464 for costs and expenses.

The businessman Valentin Esanu owns companies collecting scrap metal in Moldova. He spent two years in pre-trial detention on charges of tax evasion and was released in 2019. At the time, Eșanu said that the criminal cases filed against him were initiated at the behest, at the time, of Democratic Party of Moldova (PDM) Vice President Andrian Candu, who dispossessed him of the business, according to NewsMaker.

Valentin Eșanu’s wife, Victoria Eșanu, said in 2019 that the problems started back in 2013, when her husband’s company “Sofilarex”, which collects scrap metal, was visited by tax authorities. Then followed several controls. “When we realised we were dealing with an attempt to take our business, the husband organised protests,” said Eșanu’s wife.

This is about the protests that the company’s employees staged in front of Parliament in early 2014. They demanded the abolition of Metalferos’ monopoly on ferrous and non-ferrous metal exports. Three months later, a criminal case was filed against Valentin Esanu under the money laundering article, said his wife Victoria.

In the summer of 2017, Eșanu was detained. A charge of tax evasion was added to the money laundering charge. In addition to Eșanu, six other company employees were detained. The case was investigated by the Prosecutor’s Office for Combating Organised Crime and Special Cases.