Members of the Superior Council of Magistracy (SCM) rejected on Thursday, 11 May, the referral by the acting Prosecutor General, Ion Munteanu, on the agreement to initiate a criminal prosecution, search and hold a judge criminally liable.

The matter was examined behind closed doors.

“The SCM Plenary, by three votes “for” and five votes “against”, decides: to reject the request of the Acting Prosecutor General, Ion Munteanu, to initiate a criminal prosecution, search and hold a judge criminally liable. The decision can be appealed to the Chisinau Court of Appeal within 30 days (…). In this case there is a separate opinion from three members of the SCM”, said Nina Cernat, interim chair of the SCM.

ZdG sources in the Prosecutor’s Office say it is Ghenadie Tocaiuc, the judge who in December issued a decision releasing Adrian Nichifor from detention before the deadline. The criminal prosecution was to be initiated under Article 307 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Moldova on the issue of a judge knowingly passing a judgment, sentence, decision or order contrary to the law.

Ghenadie Tocaiuc worked as a prosecutor in the Balti prosecutor’s office from November 1999 until 2018, and in January 2018 he was appointed to a five-year term as a judge at the Soroca Court.

In 2010, proceedings were brought against Tocaiuc, then a prosecutor at the Balti Prosecutor’s Office, for committing disciplinary offences and improper performance of his duties. The basis for the initiation of the service control was the petition of M. Talmaci, in which the improper performance of service obligations by Prosecutor Tocaiuc in the process of criminal prosecution, initiated by the Police Commissariat (CP) Balti, on the fact of illegal circulation of narcotic substances, without purpose of sale, in large proportions. He then accused a minor of having procured narcotic substances “although the accusation in this part is not confirmed by any evidence”, Tocaiuc’s colleagues noted.

On Thursday, 11 May, the SJC met in extraordinary session. They are due to consider the request to withdraw the resignation of Judge Anatolie Minciuna from the Chisinau Court of Appeal.

Also today, SCM members are due to consider the request of the Comrat Court of Appeal to allocate additional funds to pay the compensation of a judge who has resigned, and to announce competitions to fill vacancies for judges in some courts.