Constitutional Court President Domnica Manole will receive 800 thousand lei from the state as moral damage caused by the case in which she was “illegally held criminally responsible”

The Chisinau Court of Appeals, Centre Court, has partially admitted the application filed by the lawyer of the President of the Constitutional Court (CC), Domnica Manole, against the Ministry of Justice.

Thus, the court decided to collect the sum of 800 thousand lei for the benefit of the magistrate, from the state budget, by way of moral damages, caused by “unlawful actions of the prosecution body and the prosecutor’s office as a result of unlawful criminal liability under Article 307 para. (1) of the Criminal Code, actions that resulted in the acquittal of Domnica Manole by the sentence of the Buiucani Court of 9 August 2019, final and irrevocable of 26 August 2019, on the charge of committing the offence provided for in Art. 307 para. (1) of the Criminal Code, as a result of the waiver of the state prosecutor to the accusation in the court hearing”.

According to the operative part of the 8 February judgment, delivered by Judge Petru Harmaniuc, another 4 500 lei will be paid to the CC President as legal aid expenses incurred in the examination of the civil case.

“For the rest, the claim for compensation of the excess of the moral damage awarded by the present judgment, as well as for the recovery of the amount exceeding the amount of the legal aid expenses awarded to the plaintiff in the present proceedings, is rejected as unfounded,” the document reads.

Domnica Manole sought compensation for non-material damage estimated at the sum of 1 000 000 lei, caused by “the unlawful actions of the criminal prosecution authorities, the public prosecutor’s office and the courts, materialised in the unlawful prosecution, with compensation for the legal aid expenses incurred in the examination of the present civil case in the sum of 5 000 lei”.

The judgment may be appealed to the Chisinau Court of Appeal within 30 days from the date of delivery of the judgment.

Domnica Manole was acquitted in the case in which she was accused of delivering a decision contrary to the law in the “referendum case” in the summer of 2019. The magistrates’ decision then came after the prosecutor on the case, Eugeniu Rurac, dropped the criminal charges.

According to Rurac, the statements of a defence witness and the conclusions of experts were the basis on which the prosecution dropped criminal charges against magistrate Domnica Manole.

Domnica Manole was prosecuted for adopting a decision contrary to the law, namely the pronouncement on 14 April 2016, as a judge at the Chisinau Court of Appeal, of a decision annulling the decision of the Central Electoral Commission (CEC) of 30 March 2016 rejecting the organisation of a referendum proposed by the “Dignity and Truth” Platform and obliging the institution to initiate that republican referendum.

Shortly afterwards, Eduard Harunjen, then acting Prosecutor General, obtained the CSM’s agreement to start criminal proceedings against the magistrate.

On 4 July 2017, after examining the additional advisory opinion of the Intelligence and Security Service (SIS) regarding the Chisinau Court of Appeal judge Domnica Manole, the Superior Council of Magistracy decided that she was not compatible with the status of judge and dismissed her from her post.

Although, after Domnica Manole’s appeal to the Constitutional Court, the judges of this institution decided that the verification by the Intelligence and Security Service of candidates for the position of judge, as well as of judges, is unconstitutional, the magistrates of the courts of the Republic of Moldova, up to the CSJ, rejected Domnica Manole’s appeal against the Superior Council of Magistracy and the Intelligence and Security Service for the annulment of two decisions dismissing her from the system.