The presidential institution announces the development of the concept on the creation of the specialised anti-corruption court, which was requested following the meeting of the Supreme Security Council (SSC) in March 2023.

According to the published document, “in order to achieve the objective of fighting corruption and in particular to ensure the speed of examination of complex corruption cases, as well as the quality of their examination, it is proposed to create the specialized anti-corruption court. The establishment of dedicated criteria for the appointment of judges and their specialisation in corruption cases will ensure that these objectives are achieved”.

This will be a separate court from the first level (specialised court) and a specialised panel will be created at the Chisinau Court of Appeal to examine appeals.

Thus, all cases from the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office and all appeals against the acts of the National Integrity Authority (ANI), including requests for confiscation of unjustified assets, will fall under the jurisdiction of the court.

According to the concept, the court will have up to 15 judges, selected by competition by the Superior Council of Magistracy (SCM) on the basis of merit and experience, and appointed, including by transfer, by the President of Moldova. They will have a salary “close to that of a Supreme Court judge after the reform (around 45 thousand lei). The salaries of registrars and assistants will also be significantly increased”.

“As additional guarantees, judges will benefit from state security on request and service housing for those outside Chisinau. At the same time, the law proposes a dedicated integrity verification mechanism, by ANI (annual verification of declarations) and by the SCM (periodic verification),” the concept paper adds.

Judges at the anti-corruption court will have a 5-year term, after which they will return to their previous position as judge or be transferred to the position of judge at the first instance in Chisinau.

The draft law on the anti-corruption court will be submitted to Parliament and public consultations on the draft law will take place on the parliamentary platform.

The Presidency invites all interested subjects to submit proposals and recommendations by 23 June 2023, including in electronic format, to the following addresses: v.bradautanu@prm.md, g.gutu@prm.md.

After the CSS meeting on 20 March 2023, where “bottlenecks in the justice reform process and ways to effectively overcome them” were to be discussed in the context of the General Assembly of Judges at which the new SCM members were not elected, Maia Sandu held a press conference in which she announced that the CSS came up with the following decisions and recommendations:

• Speed up the creation of the SCM. The SCM is expected to be operational within 30 days, no later. Parliament will appoint non-judge members who have passed the Pre-Vetting Commission’s assessment and from these members the SCM will be created and will function regardless of what the judges decide.
• The Parliament will prepare the legal framework for the creation of the Anti-Corruption Court on restricted terms and then the new SCM will announce the competition for the selection of judges for the Anti-Corruption Court. This Court will investigate cases of grand corruption and deal with corruption in the judiciary. This Court should be operational within 3 months.