Judge Aureliu Postică, in respect of whom the members of the Superior Council of Magistracy (CSM) issued, on 9 September, the agreements to initiate criminal proceedings and carry out searches, accuses the members of the Council of “abuse of power” and “flagrant violation of the guarantees of the right to a fair trial”, which, according to him, at the meeting in question was manifested by “deliberately preventing” him from presenting his defence position and “evidence to refute the reasonable suspicion of the commission of a crime”.

In a comment to Ziarul de Gardă, Dorel Musteață, acting president of the CSM, said that all the judge’s rights were respected.

Aureliu Postică claims that on 9 September, having been invited to the CSM meeting room, together with the acting Prosecutor General Dumitru Robu, “without being heard, the acting president of the CSM, Dorel Musteață, read out the decision that issued the consent to start criminal proceedings” against him.

“(…) Asking Dorel Musteață what was the reason for not inviting me and the acting Prosecutor General to the CSM plenary session and why I was not given the right and the opportunity to present my opinion on the complaint, he answered that we were called only to be handed the operative part of the decision. Thus, I shall point out that, in accordance with the provisions of Article 17 of the Law no. 947/1996 on the Superior Council of Magistracy, the examination of the issues to be resolved in the meeting begins with the report of the President of the Superior Council of Magistracy or a member of it, who has previously studied the documents and materials presented, after which the persons invited to the meeting are heard, the necessary documents and materials are examined.

The allegations of the current acting president of the CSM, Dorel Musteață, that I was invited to the CSM only to be handed a copy of the decision’s operative part also contradict the provisions of points 6.10), 6.11) of the Regulation on the organisation and functioning of the Superior Council of Magistracy, approved by the decision of the Superior Council of Magistracy no. 668/26 of 15 September 2015, which stipulate that at the meetings of the plenary of the Council it is mandatory to summon the persons whose matter is being examined. According to paragraph 6.18) of the Rules of Procedure, the matters to be dealt with at the meeting begin with the report of the Chairperson of the meeting or the rapporteur member, after which the persons invited to the meeting are heard, the necessary documents and materials are examined (…).

(… ) Thus, by examining the referral by the CSM plenary, in my absence, in flagrant violation of the guarantees of the right to a fair trial, which was manifested by intentionally preventing me from presenting my defence position and evidence (being assisted by a defence counsel), in rebuttal of the reasonable suspicion of committing the offence, the members of the CSM, in their capacity as persons of public dignity, committed an abuse of power, by which they caused me considerable damage to my rights and interests guaranteed by Art. 6 of the ECHR and Articles 16, 20 and 26 of the Constitution of the Republic of Moldova”, reads a press release of the Association of Judges of the Republic of Moldova.

In a comment to Ziarul de Gardă, Dorel Musteață, acting president of the CSM, said that all the judge’s rights were respected.

“(…) The complaints were examined in strict compliance with the legal provisions,” Dorel Musteață said.

On 9 September, the SCM issued the agreements to start criminal proceedings and carry out searches against Aureliu Postică, a judge at the Chisinau Court of Appeals, Buiucani seat, and suspended him from his post.

Aureliu Postică has been a judge since 2011 and was a prosecutor between 2000 and 2011. He worked at the Orhei Court, and in 2014 he was transferred to the Riscani Court, Chisinau municipality. Since 2019 he has been working at the Buiucani seat of the Chisinau Court.

Previously, Ziarul de Gardă wrote that Postica was evaluated several times, ordinarily or for promotion to a higher court, or to administrative positions, receiving each time the qualification “very good” (in 2014, 2016, 2018), in his work no disciplinary violations were found. In 2016, Postică rejected the request of Domnica Manole’s lawyers to annul the order to start criminal proceedings on the judge’s behalf issued by Eduard Harunjen, the then acting prosecutor general. The prosecutors would later drop the charges in that case.

Aureliu Postica was part of the panel of judges that acquitted the five judges detained in a corruption case in 2018 (Galina Moscalciuc, Svetlana Tizu, Liubovi Brânză, Ludmila Ouș and Victoria Hadârcă). In 2019, Postica attended the General Assembly of Judges, which was deemed illegal by the SCM and the then government, calling for the dismissal of the SCM members. However, the event was cancelled due to lack of quorum.

In November 2021, ZdG wrote that Aureliu Postică has owned a 147.7 square meter apartment house since 2020, for which he claims to have paid 500 thousand lei. He also declares that he owns 2 apartments, 41 and 80 square meters, acquired in 2009 and 2018, as well as two cars: Volvo XC 90, manufactured in 2010 and acquired in 2018 for 285 thousand lei and Toyota Yaris, manufactured in 2004 and bought in 2014 for 10 thousand lei (!). The magistrate’s family keeps 648 thousand lei and 10 thousand euros in two banks, one in Moldova and one in Austria.

Since 2018, Diana Postica, the magistrate’s wife, is the founder and administrator of the company “D.B. Express Acount” with accounting and financial auditing activities and tax consulting. The LLC has its legal address in one of the family’s apartments, in a block previously built for employees of the prosecutor’s office. The apartment is pledged to Victoriabank for a loan taken out by the Postică family in 2021. The Posticas have two other debts: 6 thousand euros to Iulita Postica and 200 thousand lei to Energbank.

In 2020, the Posticas said they sold a real estate property to the company “Autocurat” SRL for 932 thousand lei. It is not clear which real estate the Posticas sold, because in their 2019 wealth declaration they declared the same assets that are also in the 2020 declaration, except for the residential house, which was bought last year.