On Friday, 3 February, the pre-vetting commission announces the results of the evaluation of magistrates Stanislav Sorbalo, from Balti Court, Victor Sandu, from Chisinau Court, Centre, and Natalia Clevadi, from Chisinau Court, Buiucani. According to the Commission, the three judges, candidates for the Superior Council of Magistrates, did not pass the evaluation. Judge Sorbalo is also a candidate for the position of member of the Disciplinary College of Judges.

Candidate Natalia Clevadî requested to be assessed without taking part in the public interview.

The Commission members made their decisions on the basis of the information gathered during the assessment process, including from written communication with the candidates and from the hearings.

The result is contained in the Commission’s reasoned decisions, which are sent to the candidates, who decide whether or not to object to publication. If the three candidate judges do not notify the Commission of their refusal to publish their decisions within 48 hours of dispatch, they will be placed in full, in a depersonalised form, on the websites of the SJC and the Pre-Vetting Commission.

The Commission’s decisions may be appealed to the Supreme Court of Justice within 5 days of receipt, without prior procedure, in accordance with Article 14(2). (1) and (2) of Law no. 26/2022.

Of the 23 career judges remaining in the competition for the position of member of the SCM, 5 candidates passed the evaluation, 14 did not pass and cannot participate in the competition and 4 candidates are awaiting their decisions.

According to the data on the Supreme Court portal, seven of the remaining judges who failed to pass the assessment have challenged the decision of the pre-vetting commission at the Supreme Court of Justice (SCJ) – Iurie Bejenaru, Anatolie Turcan, Vitalie Stratan, Angela Bostan, Vladislav Holban, Sergiu Osoianu and Ecaterina Buzu.

The special panel for examining appeals against the Commission’s decisions is due to issue its first decision on Monday, 6 February, in the case of Judge Anatolie Turcan of the SCJ. In the case of Judge Angela Bostan of the Chisinau Court of Appeal, an adjournment has been announced without a deadline until the Constitutional Court examines the application on the exception of unconstitutionality.

During the hearing of Judge Stanislav Sorbalo, the issues raised by the members of the Commission concerned the disciplinary proceedings brought against the candidate in 2008 by the SCM for “violation of the obligation of impartiality and serious breach of judicial ethics” and the circumstances in which a family member purchased a building and a car, from financial means donated by the candidate, at a price below the market price.

Stanislav Sorbalo: The resignation that cost Moldova 1.7 million lei

Stanislav Sorbalo works at the Balti Court, central office. He returned to the judiciary in 2020 after 11 years of trying to prove he was illegally dismissed.

His dismissal came after then prosecutor-general Valeriu Gurbulea asked the SCM for authorisation to initiate a criminal case against Sorbalo on the grounds that he had knowingly issued a ruling contrary to the law. Sorbalo challenged the SCM’s decision in higher courts, but his claims were rejected. Subsequently, the magistrate appealed to the ECtHR, and in 2019, the government agent initiated a friendly settlement procedure with the magistrate. In July 2020, the SCJ issued a final decision annulling the 2009 SCM decision dismissing Sorbalo. Thus, the judge returned to the system. Advertisement

Along with the reinstatement decision, the SCM also ordered the payment of 1.7 million lei.

In a comment to ZdG, Sorbalo had previously mentioned that throughout the time he was not working in the system he lived on his wife’s salary and on the disability pension of one of his children. He says he wants to become a member of the SCM in order to “raise the prestige of the system and not to admit the illegalities that were committed by the former Council in 2009”.

The magistrate reported salary income of about 224 thousand lei for 2021, while his wife, employed in the State Tax Service, was paid about 184 thousand lei, according to his most recent statement of assets and personal interests.

The Sorbalo family has lived in a 243.9 square metre house with a listed value of 825 thousand lei since 2007. In 2020, the judge’s family added two cars to their garage: a Ford Kuga, manufactured in 2017, and a Lada 21214, manufactured in 2010. In 2021, the magistrate purchased a photovoltaic system, worth 183 thousand lei, and took out a loan of 100 thousand lei, with an interest rate of 2%. Also in 2021, the magistrate’s wife, who works as a senior inspector in the State Tax Service, received dental services worth about 110 thousand lei.

Victor Sandu: Lost case at the ECtHR, tens of thousands of euros from wedding and apartment at preferential price

Victor Sandu has been working since 2015 as a magistrate at the Chisinau Court of Appeals, Ciocana seat.

Victor Sandu is the magistrate who, in the first instance, pronounced the decision against Rise Moldova and investigative journalist Iurie Sanduta in the case of the investigation into the illegal financing of the Party of Socialists of Moldova in the Russian Federation through an offshore in the Bahamas. Subsequently, in this case, the ECtHR condemned Moldova for violation of freedom of expression, and the state was ordered to pay damages of €3,800.

In a comment to ZdG, Sandu told ZdG beforehand that he believes that “the ECtHR ruling has given a broader explanation of the application of Article 10 of the Convention and will give confidence and legal basis to all journalists in their work.”

Victor Sandu: “By the judgment of 21 December 2017, the application for a writ of summons filed by the PSRM against Iurie Sanduta and the Association of Investigative and Security Reporters concerning the defence of professional honour, dignity and reputation, and the recovery of moral damages, was partially admitted. By decision of the CA Chisinau of 3 December 2020, the judgment of 21 December 2017 in the civil case in the action brought by PSRM was quashed. At the same time, CA Chisinau rejected the request to expressly find a violation of Article 10 and to award damages to the plaintiffs, on the grounds that they had no such jurisdiction. Subsequently, the ECtHR found that CA Chisinau had expressly refused, by its judgment of 4 March 2020, to find a violation of the applicants’ right under Article 10 of the Convention. Accordingly, the Court found that there had been a violation of Article 10 of the Convention and that the applicants were entitled to compensation for non-material damage and awarded them the full amount claimed. Thus, I consider that the ECtHR judgment has given a broader explanation of the application of Article 10 of the Convention and will give confidence and legal basis to all journalists in their work.”

Earlier, ZdG wrote that Victor Sandu took a decision considered by jurists “unprecedented” after ordering compensation for a road accident in the Transnistrian region. He was also a member of the panel of judges examining the criminal case against Vladimir Plahotniuc. Although both the Chisinau court and the court of appeal convicted the defendants, all the defendants in that case were finally acquitted last November.

In 2018, disciplinary proceedings were brought against Sandu on the basis of a complaint filed by then Prosecutor General Harunjen Eduard. The complaint concerned the criminal case against businessman Sergei Cosovan. Sandu allegedly intended to release him from custody, which is why the prosecutor asked for the magistrate to be recused. Sandu was removed from examining the case and the disciplinary proceedings were terminated.

Also in 2018, Serghei Cosovan submitted a complaint to the SCM asking for the magistrate’s disciplinary liability. Cosovan claimed that he was being persecuted by the judge and the prosecutor of the case Lilian Carpaci. The complaint was rejected as unfounded.

In 2021, the judge had salary income of 261 thousand lei, 20 thousand lei he got from the sale of a scooter and another 200 thousand lei from the sale of a BMW car.

In 2021, the magistrate and his wife, played wedding, and at the ceremony the couple received gifts 47,200 euros, 9,250 dollars and 100 thousand lei. They also received 3 thousand euros at the religious and civil wedding, and 4 thousand euros at the child’s baptism.

According to the declaration of wealth and personal interests for 2021, the magistrate signed a sale-purchase agreement for an apartment of 74 square meters at the preferential price of 420 euros for one square meter in a housing block in the Ciocana sector of Chisinau, specially built for employees of the judiciary in Moldova.

In 2021, the judge bought a Mercedes E220, manufactured in 2010, and a Kawasaki VN1700 Voyager motorcycle, manufactured in 2015, for which he would have paid 6.5 thousand euros, for 240 thousand lei. And in 2022, the judge’s wife became the owner of a Land Rover Evoque car, manufactured in 2014 and purchased for 15.5 thousand euros. The judge states that in 2020 he received the right of use for an apartment of 54.7 square meters, which since 2016 belongs to his parents.

Natalia Clevadi: Lost case at the ECtHR and accusations that she followed Plahotniuc’s orders

Natalia Clevadî has been working in the judiciary since 2011. She started her career at the Balti Court and in January 2015 she was transferred to the Court of sect. Riscani, mun. Chisinau, at the request of the then president of the court, Oleg Melniciuc. She is currently working at the Chisinau Court, Buiucani seat.

Four months after his transfer, Clevadi was given the right to buy an apartment in a block for court employees at a preferential price. Melniciuc then argued that the magistrate “has been working as a judge for more than four years and is not assured of a place to live in Chisinau”. After having purchased the apartment at a preferential price, Clevadi sold the property at market price. In 2017, ZdG found out that this is the daughter of former CSJ judge Valentina Clevadî. The judge’s mother was part of the panel of judges of the SCJ that put an end to the case of magistrate Stanislav Sorbalo, upholding the SCM’s 2010 decision dismissing him. 10 years later, however, the judge found justice at the ECtHR.

A decision of the panel in which Judge Clevadî sat was under review at the ECtHR. She was part of a three-judge panel that examined at first instance the “Petrenco group” case, in which in September 2019 the ECtHR found violations of several articles of the Convention and ordered Moldova to pay €68,000 in damages to the applicants, members of the group. After the conviction at the ECtHR, Natalia Clevadî’s name appeared in a petition by the “Petrenco group”, which called for the “lustration” of those responsible for the fabrication of the file, accused of following Vladimir Plahotniuc’s orders.

In December 2021, a referral was submitted to the SCM for the disciplinary liability of the magistrate. The complaint was rejected as unfounded.

In her declaration of assets and interests for 2021, Natalia Clevadî declared the apartment she bought in 2018 at a preferential price and another apartment with an area of 44 square meters, with the right of habitation. Clevadî holds shares worth 6 lei in Agro Petrol SA and Tirex Petrol SA, which at the end of 2019 came under the management of “Estcon Construct” SRL from Ialoveni for about 10 million euros and is connected to Artiom Pînzari, the son-in-law of former Defense Minister Alexandru Pînzari. In 2021, the magistrate had salary income of about 250 thousand lei. Another 43 thousand lei came from renting an apartment.