Judicial fines imposed on socialist Igor Dodon’s lawyers annulled by another panel of the Supreme Court of Justice
The judges of the Supreme Court of Justice (SCJ) examined on Monday 20 March the appeals against the judicial fines imposed on the lawyers of former President Igor Dodon, who is under investigation for passive bribery, organising and accepting political party funding from a “criminal organisation”. Judges have decided to annul the court’s orders imposing judicial fines on Dodon’s lawyers, the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (PA) reports.
“At the same time, we inform that one of the judges of the panel signed a separate opinion. The reasoned decision will be delivered on 27 March 2023 and posted on the website of the Supreme Court of Justice,” PA representatives note.
At the end of February, the PA announced that Dodon’s lawyers were sanctioned with a judicial fine of 1000 lei each, with the information of the Lawyers’ Union and the Ministry of Justice, on the grounds that they had repeatedly filed a request for recusal of the prosecutor with “bad faith and abusively, with the aim of delaying the trial”.
On 16 March this year, the judges of the SCJ granted the prosecutors’ request to extend the preventive measure – an order not to leave the country for 60 days – against Igor Dodon.
Representatives of the PA previously told Ziarul de Gardă that Igor Dodon had requested permission to leave Moldova from 31 March to 10 April 2023 to make a pilgrimage to a monastery in Greece.
“The prosecutor requested the rejection of the request, as it is unfounded, no evidence was presented to prove the exceptional personal situation of the defendant Dodon Igor to leave the country. The pronouncement of the decision on the application was postponed to 24 March 2023,” PA representatives claim.
On 18 November 2022, Igor Dodon was released from house arrest and placed under judicial control, with a ban on leaving the country.
Dodon is the first head of state to be tried for a crime committed while in office. For this reason, the case was referred directly to the SCJ, which by law is competent to try criminal cases involving offences committed by a head of state at first instance.
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