The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has found in a decision issued on 21 February 2023 that magistrate Angela Catană has been violated her right to a fair trial in the case concerning the two disciplinary sanctions imposed on her as a judge.

According to the ECtHR judgment, the Court found that the requirements of independence and impartiality were not satisfied in the present case, as regards the composition of the Superior Council of the Magistracy (CSM), which examined the applicant’s case.

“It found in particular that the presence, even in a passive role, of a member of the government on an authority empowered to impose disciplinary sanctions on judges may in itself be highly problematic for the purposes of the requirements of Article 6 of the Convention, and in particular the requirement that the disciplinary authority be independent,” according to the ECtHR judgment.

Moreover, according to the ECtHR decision, “the lack of transparency regarding the role of the Prosecutor General in the adoption of CSM decisions served as a legitimate source of concern about the risk of bias in this part: ‘Finally, the Court found that the selection process for law professors in the CSM did not provide guarantees of independence’.”

Thus, the Court decided that the State will have to pay the magistrate Angela Catană the sum of EUR 3 600 for non-material damage and EUR 1 355 for costs and expenses.

In 2011 and 2012, magistrate Angela Catană was given two severe reprimands for amnesty for a rapist and the annulment of an order to initiate criminal proceedings.

Thus, according to anticoruptie.md, by Decision no. 48/12 of 07.10.2011, Angela Catană was imposed the disciplinary sanction in the form of “harsh reprimand”. The disciplinary board concluded that the magistrate had misapplied the provisions of Article 5 of the Law on Amnesty in connection with the declaration of 2008 as the Year of Youth. The College justified its decision on the grounds that the amnestied person did not have the status of a convicted person as provided for in Article 65 of the Code of Criminal Procedure and could not be granted amnesty before the court had established his guilt.

In June 2012, Angela Catană was given a second disciplinary sanction in the form of a “severe reprimand”, at the request of Valeriu Zubco, for cancelling an order to start criminal proceedings in a case of embezzlement of assets.

Angela Catană has been a judge since 1996. In 2001, by a decree signed by former Moldovan President Petru Lucinschi, Catană was appointed as a judge until she reached the age limit.