The Supreme Court of Justice (CSJ) has set up a special panel to examine appeals against the decisions of the Independent Integrity Assessment Commission for the evaluation of candidates for membership of the self-governing bodies of judges and prosecutors.

Thus, the panel that will examine the appeals submitted to the CSJ by magistrates who applied for membership of the Superior Council of Magistracy (CSM) and did not pass the evaluation of the Pre-Vetting Commission is composed as follows: Vladimir Timofti, Ala Cobăneanu and Svetlana Filincova. At the same time, Judge Dumitru Mardari has been appointed as an alternate member of the special trial panel, according to a response of the CSJ to a request for information from Ziarul de Gardă.

The acting president of the CSJ, Vladimir Timofti, has served in the judiciary since 1992. According to magistrat.md, he was appointed in 2002 as a judge until he reached the age limit. Subsequently, in 2003, he was appointed to the position of judge at the CSJ. In 2012, Timofti was conferred the higher grade of judge, and in 2014 he was awarded the Diploma of Honour of the Superior Council of Magistracy. In November 2019, Timofti was appointed to serve as interim President of the SJC until the position is filled in the manner established by law.

Previously, ZdG wrote that Vladimir Timofti was part of the panel of judges at the CSJ that, on 12 February 2017, rejected as inadmissible the appeals filed by the parties in the case of former Prime Minister Vladimir Filat, previously tried for passive corruption and influence peddling. Timofti was also a member of the panel of judges that put an end to the case of controversial businessman Veaceslav Platon.

In February 2017, ZdG wrote about the magistrate’s house in the town of Codru.

CSJ Judge Ala Cobăneanu has been working in the judiciary since 1991, according to magistrat.md. In 2002, the judge was appointed as a judge until she reached the age limit, and in 2003 she was appointed as a CSJ judge.

Earlier, ZdG wrote that magistrate Nicolae Șova of the Chisinau Court of Appeals, Central Headquarters, is the husband of the nephew of CSJ judge Ala Cobăneanu’s brother.

Ala Cobăneanu bought in 2014 a house and land for construction in the city of Chisinau. Cricova, Chisinau municipality, after a loan taken from “Victoriabank” in the amount of 1.65 million lei, with a repayment term of July 2028, ZdG wrote in June 2016. Details here.

CSJ Magistrate Svetlana Filincova has been working in the judiciary since 2007, when she was appointed as a judge at the CSJ, according to magistrat.md. In 2012, she was appointed to the position of vice-president of the CSJ, and three years later, on April 7, 2015, the CSM proposed to the Moldovan Parliament the dismissal of Filincova from the position of vice-president of the CSJ and president of the Civil, Commercial and Administrative Disputes College, based on her resignation request. Her departure from these positions coincided with accusations by Victor Micu, former president of the CSM, that she had rigged the system of random allocation of cases at the CSJ.

According to her declaration of assets and personal interests, filed on the website of the National Integrity Authority (ANI), in 2021 magistrate Svetlana Filincova collected salary income amounting to 333 621 lei, as well as 396 554 lei from her pension and allowance for temporary incapacity for work.

The Filincova family owns three extravilane properties: a 166.2 square metre house on the ground, which would be worth 2 174 068 lei, and a 36.2 square metre real estate, which would be worth 119 708 lei. At the same time, the Filincova family owns a Toyota Auris car, said to be worth 50 thousand lei.

In 2016, ZdG wrote about the luxury house of Judge Svetlana Filincova.

In December 2012, Svetlana Filincova and her husband, lawyer Anatoli Filincov, moved into a new house on Lăpușnei Street in Chisinau. The property was bought by the couple, still unfinished, and was put into use in January 2013. In the judge’s 2013 asset declaration, she claimed that she bought her luxury house for only 420 thousand lei (!), although its market price was 4-5 million lei. In March 2015, the National Integrity Commission (CNI) found that Filincova had failed to declare several assets, including a Porsche Cayenne, which she leased, as well as several bank accounts. However, the Râșcani court annulled the CN’s control act. However, after the CNI control, in her 2015 wealth declaration, Magistrate Filincova changed the value of her house from 420 thousand lei to 2.1 million lei.

Dumitru Mardari has been a judge since 1994. In February 2014, he was appointed as a judge at the CSJ until he reached the age of 65. Five years later, the plenary of the Superior Council of Magistracy appointed Mardari as interim president of the Civil, Commercial and Contentious Collegium of the CSJ, during the suspension of Judge Oleg Sternioală, according to magistrat.md.

ZdG previously wrote that in early 2016, Dumitru Mardari came into possession of two apartments in the Ciocana sector of the capital, of 120 and 87 square meters respectively. Both came into his possession through “testamentary succession” from his father, Vasile. The judge’s father invested in both apartments in 2007-2008, when he was 71-72 years old.

Dumitru Mardari, at the time his father was investing in apartments, was president of Ciocana Court. Also in 2016, the judge became the beneficiary of four hectares of agricultural land by “legal succession”, but also the owner of no less than 11 rooms, also obtained by legal and testamentary succession. In previous years, the judge has also obtained other properties, mostly in the town of Cupcini, Edinet district.

All five magistrates who applied for membership of the CSM and did not pass the Pre-Vetting Commission’s assessment have appealed the decision to the CSJ.

The Pre-Vetting Commission announced on Wednesday 4 January that it had completed the evaluation process for five candidates for the position of member of the CSM from among career judges and had sent its decisions to the candidates and the institution responsible for organising the competition. The decisions concern magistrates Iurie Bejenaru and Anatolie Țurcan from the CSJ, Vitalie Stratan and Vladislav Holban from the Chisinau Court of Appeals, central seat, and Angela Bostan from the Chisinau Court of Appeals (CA), who, according to the Commission, do not meet the integrity criteria and did not pass the evaluation.

Commission members justified their decisions not to pass the assessment by finding serious doubts about the candidates’ compliance with the principles of ethical and financial integrity, while some magistrates described the Commission’s decisions as subjective.