The Constitutional Court (CC) has declared inadmissible the petition filed by deputies of the “Șor” political party to verify the constitutionality of the Parliament’s decision on declaring a vacancy of a deputy’s mandate in Parliament. Ilan Shor, who was sentenced to 15 years’ imprisonment by the Chisinau Court of Appeal in the “bank fraud” case, is thus deprived of his parliamentary seat.

The High Court found that the complaint filed by “Șor” Party MPs Reghina Apostolova, Marina Tauber, Denis Ulanov, Vadim Fotescu and Petru Jardan was “unfounded and therefore inadmissible”. The High Court’s judgment is final and cannot be appealed.

“The Court cannot accept the applicants’ arguments that the contested judgment was adopted without a legal basis. The Court also cannot establish the applicability of the constitutional principle of the presumption of innocence, given the fact that the Parliament did not pronounce itself on the guilt of the MP, but only took note of the decision (dispositif) of the Chisinau Court of Appeal of 13 April 2023, pronounced with regard to the MP Ilan Shor (…)”, CC judges argue.

On 27 April this year, Ilan Shor, chairman of the “Shor” political party, sentenced by the judges of the Chisinau Court of Appeal to 15 years in a closed prison for fraud and money laundering in the “Bank Fraud” case, was stripped of his parliamentary seat. Parliament adopted a draft decision declaring that Ilan Shor’s membership of parliament had been terminated. The draft was supported by 56 PAS MPs. One PAS MP, the Communists and the Socialists did not vote for the decision.

At the same time, the draft decision states that one seat in the legislature belonging to the “Șor” political party has been declared vacant.

Subsequently, representatives of the “Șor” Party announced that they would appeal to the CC against the Parliament’s decision on “lifting Ilan Șor’s mandate as deputy”. The Șor Party said it had taken note of the “unprecedented abuse, finalized today (27 April 2023) by the parliamentary majority’s vote on the illegal decision to terminate Ilan Șor’s mandate”. According to the communiqué issued by the political party, this act would flagrantly contravene the principles of a representative mandate and defy the people’s choice.