Representatives of the Prosecutor General’s Office (PG) claim that the decision of the Chisinau Court, Center seat, by which the state has to pay the President of the Constitutional Court (CC), Domnica Manole, 800 thousand lei as moral damage caused by the case in which she was “illegally held criminally responsible” will be challenged at the Chisinau Court of Appeal (CA).

In a comment to Ziarul de Gardă, PG spokeswoman Violina Moraru said that “the General Prosecutor’s Office considers the amount received as moral damages to be exaggerated”.

“According to the case law of the European Court of Human Rights, compensation must be fair and reasonable, in such a way as to ensure effective and not excessive compensation. Thus, the court’s decision will be challenged by appeal within the time limit provided by law”, said Violina Moraru.

The Chisinau Court of Justice, Centre Court, partially admitted the application for a writ of summons filed by the lawyer of the CC President, Domnica Manole, against the Ministry of Justice (MJ).

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.

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.