The Government of Moldova is represented before the Constitutional Court (CC) in the case of the petition on the verification of the constitutionality of the political party “Shor” by three lawyers. On the other side, the political party is defended by four lawyers and has requested the acceptance of four more deputies as representatives in the process. The government told ZdG that the lawyers’ office was selected following a legal procedure.

The plaintiff, the Government, is represented before the magistrates of the High Court by the lawyers of the Associated Law Firm “Digore & Partners” Eduard Digore, Ina Bostan and Andrei Digore.

Eduard Digore has been practicing law since 2007. He is a member of the Chisinau Bar Association and one of the founders of the law firm “Digore & Partners”. According to his CV, his areas of activity are: civil law, commercial law, banking law, labour law, private international law, tax law, criminal law.

Digore was one of the lawyers who represented citizens from the diaspora who could not vote in the presidential elections of 13 November 2016 due to the exhaustion of ballots

Lawyer Ina Bostan, who became licensed in March 2019, has also been an associate of BAA “Digore & Partners” since 2023. She was appointed in 2021 by the High Council of Prosecutors as an alternate member of the College of Discipline and Ethics. Bostan specialises in civil law and was a senior lecturer at the Department of Property Law, UTM, as well as a university lecturer, head of the Law Program, UTM.

Andrei Digori is a trainee lawyer in the same office since the beginning of 2023.

Minister of Justice Veronica Mihailov-Moraru previously worked with the law firm in her career as a lawyer. According to the data presented on the website of the public institution, from October 2017 until August 2019, she worked as a lawyer in collaboration with the Law Firm “Digore”, in consulting and representation on criminal and civil cases.

Requested by ZdG, the executive said that the services of Digore & Partners were contracted for about 160 thousand lei.

“The authorities promote transparency and reject accusations by some actors in the public space that this contract was secretive.

The Government, through the legal procedure of direct contracting of small value, makes use of the services of the current law firm and the contract for legal assistance is about 160 thousand lei” – said for Ziarul de Gardă, the spokesman of the Government, Daniel Voda.

At the beginning of Wednesday’s sitting, the CC magistrates rejected the request submitted by the representatives of the “Shor” party asking the High Court to verify whether the powers of the representatives of the Executive are approved by a government decision.

“(…) We request the High Court to verify whether the power of attorney and the powers of attorney of lawyers Digore and Bostan are approved by a Government decision. If it is found that these powers of attorney have not been approved by Government decision, we request the removal of the representatives from the examination of this constitutional process and the elimination of all documents submitted to the Court by an unauthorized person (…)”, said one of the lawyers of the Shor Party Vadim Banaru.

On the other hand, government representatives argued that a government decision is not necessary for the executive to be represented at the CC by lawyers.

“I ask that the request of the representatives of the “Shor” Party be rejected. First of all, it was common sense and very fair for the respect of the adversarial principle that any request on the progress of the process should be submitted in advance, to be brought to the attention of the Court and the parties, so that there is a qualified preparation… Secondly, according to the Code of Constitutional Jurisdiction, the parties before the CC may participate through its organs or, possibly, be represented by proxy by lawyers (…). We have submitted the act required by the Code of Constitutional Jurisdiction, the only act required by law (…). It gives us all the powers to represent the Government before the Court (…)”, said Eduard Digore.

The “Shor” party is represented by the defenders Vadim Bănaru, Victor Mazniuc, Aureliu Colenco and Denis Calaida.

On Wednesday, 10 May, the Constitutional Court judges will examine the Government’s application for verification of the constitutionality of the “Shor” political party. The High Court announced that the Executive’s application will be examined “from 10 May until 17 May 2023”.

The application states that “the actions of the “Shor” Party do not fall under the guarantees of the right to free association and freedom of opinion and expression, and are to be considered as actions contrary to the constitutional identity of the Republic of Moldova, its national interests and, intrinsically, the sovereignty and independence of the state”.

On November 14, 2022, the CC announced that the application submitted by the Government on the verification of the constitutionality of the “Shor” political party was being examined by the institution. The CC mentioned that in relation to this case, opinions were requested from the “Șor” Party and other public authorities on the mentioned complaint.

In November 2022, the representatives of the Executive submitted to the CC a petition to verify the constitutionality of the “Shor” political party. According to the application “through all its activities so far, the “Șor” Party has acted in contradiction with the principles of the rule of law and endangers the sovereignty and independence of Moldova”.