Dragalin: Another Case Against Filat Pending in Court

Veronica Dragalin said that former Prime Minister Vlad Filat was justly and lawfully sentenced to 9 years’ imprisonment. The head of the Anti-Corruption office explained, the ECHR judgement indicated that Filat had not been tried fairly and publicly, but had not denied the former Prime Minister’s guilt. Besides, Filat has debts to the state, realitatea.md reports. “The ECHR’s decision says that Filat’s right to a public trial was violated because the trial sessions were held behind closed doors, but it does not mean that the ECHR denies his conviction and guilt. The European Court considered that his right to a fair trial or other rights had been violated. There is a sentence of hundreds of pages, where the evidence that formed this case’s basis is clearly described, there are the conclusions of the Court.” “What will be the fate of Filat? Will he return to prison? Not on this charge, he has already served the term in prison. There is also a confiscation of 472 million lei, i.e. about 20 million euros to be recovered from Vlad Filat, so far -  zero lei confiscated. There is another case against him, which is already pending in Court, on money laundering,” Dragalin said. In June this year, former Prime Minister Vlad Filat announced that he demanded a review of the case in which he had been sentenced to 9 years in prison. The announcement followed the decision of the European Court of Human Rights, which recognized procedural violations during the trial. In October 2015, Vlad Filat was stripped of his immunity and detained on charges of influence peddling and bribery on the basis of allegations by businessman Ilan Șor, the main defendant in the bank fraud case. In June 2016, the former Prime Minister was sentenced to nine years in prison. Filat pleaded not guilty, claiming that he was a victim of reprisals by PDM leader Vlad Plahotniuc. Vlad Filat was released from prison in 2019 after his lawyers had managed to reduce his sentence by 709 days due to poor conditions. In January 2023, the Moldovan Government was convicted by the European Court of Human Rights in the case of ex-Prime Minister Filat. The latter complained to the ECHR that the hearings were not public and that the national courts had not taken effective measures to ensure the defence witnesses presence. The ECHR considered that the state should pay the former Prime Minister 7,500 euros.