Former Prime Minister Vladimir Filat announces that he has filed a request to the Supreme Court of Justice (SCJ) on Tuesday, June 20, to review the trial in which he was previously convicted. He says he has asked the court to “redress the fundamental violations committed by the national courts in the trial of the case”.

“The request comes after the European Court of Human Rights condemned Moldova for trying and sentencing me without a fair trial.

In order to restore justice, I have asked the Supreme Court of Justice to remedy the fundamental violations committed by the national courts in the trial of the case. This time, the national courts are to take into account the findings of the European Court in the State’s sentencing judgment, namely that I did not have a public trial in which I could defend myself and prove my innocence. The Court also admitted that other fair trial rights were violated, such as the refusal to hear witnesses, the appointment of experts, etc. (…).

(…) With the reopening of the trial and the trial of my case in a public trial, with respect for fundamental rights and guarantees, I am firmly convinced that I will prove my innocence in a fair trial, which I and many others were not able to benefit from during the “captured state” period. We all have the right to justice!”, Filat said in a post on his Facebook page.

Vladimir Filat ended up behind bars on 15 October 2015, after being sentenced to nine years in prison, by a sentence of the Chisinau Court in June 2016, which became final by the Supreme Court of Justice in February 2017. Because Filat still had criminal cases pending before the National Anti-Corruption Centre and the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office, he was not taken to serve his sentence in Lipcani Penitentiary, where convicts who previously held public office are held. He remained in Chisinau, incarcerated in Penitentiary No. 13.

While serving his sentence, Filat appealed to the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), claiming inhuman conditions of detention in Penitentiary No. 13, as well as violations of his right to liberty and security due to the lack of grounds for remand in custody during the trial of his case or violations of his right to privacy.

The release from detention of former Prime Minister Vladimir Filat after serving four years, one month and two weeks of his nine-year sentence has provoked a ping-pong of accusations between the political camps in Chisinau. The sentence releasing Filat from prison was handed down in the afternoon of December 3, 2019, by investigating judge Victor Rățoi. The same judge, on 15 October 2015, had applied, for the first time, an arrest warrant on Filat’s name.

On 31 January 2023, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) partially upheld the politician’s complaint of lack of publicity in criminal proceedings. The state was to pay former Prime Minister Vladimir Filat €7 500 in compensation for non-material damage. After the publication of the ECtHR ruling, former Prime Minister Vladimir Filat told a press conference that he had been waiting “for this moment for 7 years and 4 months”: “That’s how long it has been since that plot took place, on 15 October 2015”, Filat said.