Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Viorel Topa, Victor Topa and Others v. The Republic of Moldova and 1 Other Application
Viorel Topa, Victor Topa and Others v. The Republic of Moldova and 1 Other Application
SECOND SECTION
Applications nos. 40339/11 and 26159/12
Viorel ŢOPA, Victor ŢOPA and Others against the Republic of Moldova
and Viorel ŢOPA, Victor ŢOPA and Vladimir MORARI against the
Republic of Moldova
lodged on 24 June 2011 and 18 April 2012 respectively
STATEMENT OF FACTS
together enjoyed 51.7 per cent of voting rights at the bank’s Annual General
Meeting (“AGM”).
The third significant shareholder in the bank was Victoria Invest Ltd., a
company controlled by VP. VP, one of Moldova’s richest men, is currently
Chairman of the ruling Democratic Party. He was a member of the
Parliament of Moldova in two terms from December 2010 to October 2013
and from December 2014 to July 2015, and served as First Deputy Speaker
of the Parliament of Moldova from December 2010 to February 2013.
OpenDemocracy describes him as “the most influential person in Moldova”, a
man who “controls nearly every government institution”.
Viorel Ţopa and Victor Ţopa had been business partners with VP when
the three men acquired their shares in the bank in 2006. At the time they
agreed to maintain an equal balance of shares between them. In or around
the beginning of 2010, Viorel Ţopa and Victor Ţopa entered into
negotiations with VP to terminate their relationship and interest in the bank.
However, at an AGM on 19 May 2010 they were informed that they were
no longer registered shareholders, either in the bank or in companies
holding shares in the bank. At that same meeting the new group of
controlling shareholders voted to pay themselves a dividend of
MDL 170,000,000 (approximately EUR 8,700,000).
Following the AGM on 19 May 2010, Viorel Ţopa and Victor Ţopa
discovered that five separate legal proceedings, brought by individuals and
companies which had sold shares in Victoriabank to persons or companies
acting on their behalf, had resulted in the rescission or declaration of
invalidity of those share sale agreements.
According to Viorel Ţopa and Victor Ţopa, after they were divested of
the bulk of their share capital and voting rights, VP controlled a voting
block of 58.3 per cent. At an extraordinary meeting of the bank’s
shareholders which took place on 20 August 2010, a new supervisory board
was elected. Six of its seven members, including VP, were nominated by
Victoria Invest Ltd. (the company controlled by VP).
(a) The five cases
Each of the five cases was heard at first instance by the District
Economic Court; at second instance by the Economic Court of Appeal; and
at third instance by the Economic Chamber of the Supreme Court.
The administrative details of the cases are set out in appendix 2.
(i) Case 1
By way of a notarised share sale agreement dated 25 June 2003, EA had
sold to OC 100 per cent of the capital shares in LR Uniune, a company
which owned a considerable portion of the shares in the bank. In 2005 OC
alienated twenty-five per cent of those shares to Victor Jantic, an associate
VIOREL ŢOPA, VICTOR ŢOPA AND OTHERS v. THE REPUBLIC OF MOLDOVA 3
AND VIOREL ŢOPA, VICTOR ŢOPA AND AND VLADIMIR MORARI
v. THE REPUBLIC OF MOLDOVA
of Viorel Ţopa and Victor Ţopa, and a further twenty-five per cent to AM.
The other fifty per cent were sold to MA (EA’s husband) in 2006.
LR Uniune was then split into two companies – Financiar Invest SRL and
Profinante SRL – with each obtaining fifty per cent of LR Uniune’s capital
and assets. Fifty per cent of Financiar Invest SRL’s shares were owned by
Victor Jantic. Both Financiar Invest SRL and Victor Jantic are applicants in
application no. 40339/11.1
In 2007 MA sold his shares in Profinante SRL to the husband of VP’s
secretary.
EA and her husband, MA, subsequently sought the nullity of the sale
agreement of 25 June 2003. They contended that it was void because the
share capital was part of their joint and indivisible property at the date of
transfer and MA did not consent to the alienation of his share. They further
contended that the price indicated in the contract of sale was false and had
not been paid. Finally, they argued that the legal acts subsequent to the
conclusion of the contract of sale should be annulled.
Both Financiar Invest SRL and Profinante SRL were named as
defendants to the action. Profinante SRL was represented by its Director at
the hearing and contested the plaintiff’s claim. Financiar Invest SRL did not
appear and was not represented. The court stated that the company had been
“legally summonsed”, that the summonses were sent to the addresses
indicated in the contested acts, and that no representative of the company
had appeared at the post office to receive the summons.
The District Economic Court found that the right of MA to his joint and
indivisible property had been violated as there were no documents showing
his consent to or his awareness of the sale of the shares by EA. OC had been
obliged to ask about his consent and her failure to act with due diligence
conflicted with the presumption of good faith. The court also considered
that the price indicated in the sale agreement was false and that no evidence
of payment had been submitted. It therefore found the sale agreement was
void, as was the reorganisation of LR Uniune by the establishment of
Financiar Invest SRL, and ordered the transfer to the plaintiffs of the
157,024 shares issued by Victoriabank which were held by Financiar Invest
SRL. The court found, however, that the reorganisation of LR Uniune by
the establishment of Profinante SRL did not violate the plaintiff’s rights as
they had acquired one hundred per cent of the capital share of that company.
Victor Jantic, AM and Financiar Invest SRL appealed on the following
grounds. First of all, they contended that the Economic Courts did not have
jurisdiction to examine the case, as their competence was expressly limited
to the examination of cases between a shareholder and a joint stock
object of a claim, there are no third parties that can raise any claims regarding it (the
husband, [EM], verbally gave his consent to the conclusion of the contract).”
The plaintiff, EM (who is the husband of VM), subsequently brought
proceedings against Victoria Asiguraru SRL, VM, Stela Corcodel and
Vladimir Morari. EM argued that on 3 January 2007 VM had sold over
fifty per cent of the share capital in the defendant company to Stela
Corcodel and Vladimir Morari without his permission. He therefore asked
the District Economic Court to annul the sale agreement and reinstate the
parties.
According to the judgment of the District Economic Court, the defendant
company, Stela Corcodel and Vladimir Morari were legally summonsed but
refused to accept the summonses. The defendant VM was present at the
hearing. She did not present any arguments and confirmed her husband’s
claim.
The court considered the plaintiff’s claim to be well-founded as EM and
VM were legally married at the date of the sale; although VM was
registered as sole owner of the shares, both spouses had rightful ownership
of them; EM did not consent to the sale; and the defendants should have
been aware of this fact as they were not presented with his written consent.
The court declared the contract null and void and ordered that the shares be
returned to VM. As VM asserted that the price of the contract was never
paid, the court further held that Stela Corcodel and Vladimir Morari could
not claim restitution of the transaction price.
Stela Corcodel filed an appeal, supported by Vladimir Morari. However,
the appellate court considered that the first instance court had examined all
factual and legal circumstances of the case and correctly reached the
conclusion that the plaintiff’s claim was well-founded. It therefore
dismissed the appeal.
The defendants appealed to the Supreme Court on the following grounds.
First of all, they submitted that the economic courts did not have jurisdiction
to examine the case as the litigation did not derive from the economic
activity of Victoria Asiguraru SRL and it was not litigation between
shareholders of the company. Secondly, they argued that they had not been
legally summonsed and that there had been a violation of the legal
provisions concerning the delivery of the case material to them. Thirdly,
they contended that the lower courts’ finding that Stela Corcodel and
Vladimir Morari should have known that EM did not consent to the sale of
the shares was unfounded, since under domestic law the consent of either a
spouse or a co-owner to a sale of goods was presumed and, in any event, the
contract stipulated that EM had given his oral consent to the transaction.
Fourthly, the contract of sale contained a payment clause and the first
instance court should not have accepted the plaintiff’s allegation of
non-payment based only on the oral testimony of his wife.
6 VIOREL ŢOPA, VICTOR ŢOPA AND OTHERS v. THE REPUBLIC OF MOLDOVA
AND VIOREL ŢOPA, VICTOR ŢOPA AND AND VLADIMIR MORARI
v. THE REPUBLIC OF MOLDOVA
notary because it did not address the rights over the shares of AVB Prim
SRL; and finally, that there had been no breach of Article 1 of
Protocol No. 1 since Angela Nastase had not executed the obligations in the
sale agreement.
(iv) Case 4
GPR was the owner of 129,194 shares in Victoriabank. The sole
shareholder of Provileg Invest SRL was Inna Ilias, an associate of
Viorel Ţopa and Victor Ţopa. Both Provileg Invest SRL and Inna Ilias are
party to application no. 40339/11.
On 15 August 2007 there was a meeting of the shareholders of Provileg
Invest SRL, at which GPR was represented by Vladimir Morari, to whom
she had given power of attorney. At that meeting she transferred her shares
in the bank to Provileg Invest SRL (which then held four per cent of shares
in the bank); became a shareholder in Provileg Invest SRL; and sold her
share capital in Provileg Invest SRL to Inna Ilias. Paragraph 5 of the sale
agreement stated that Vladimir Morari, as the representative of GPR, had
outlined the rights of her husband and co-owner (VPR) in relation to the
transaction and indicated that he had agreed verbally to the conclusion of
the agreement.
GPR and VPR subsequently commenced proceedings against Inna Ilias
in the District Economic Court, arguing that the sale agreement of
15 August 2007 was void because VPR had not consented to the sale.
According to the decision of the District Economic Court, neither Inna Ilias
nor Provileg Invest SRL was present at the hearing, despite having been
legally summonsed. In their absence, the court found that the agreement was
void for lack of spousal consent. It further held it to be void due to the fact
that in signing it Vladimir Morari had acted outside the limits of the power
of attorney. The power of attorney had only authorised him to carry out
actions pertaining to the alienation of shares in Victoriabank and did not
cover the alienation itself. The Court rescinded the sale agreement and
ordered that the shares in the bank which were held by Provileg Invest SRL
be re-registered in GPR’s name. Finally, the court considered it established
that the contract was not executed as the sale price had not been paid to
GPR.
Inna Ilias and Provileg Invest SRL appealed against that decision. They
argued, inter alia, that the first instance court had misapplied domestic law
relating to spousal consent; that there were no limitations on the legal
powers held by Vladimir Morari pursuant to the power of attorney; that they
had not been legally summonsed; that there had been a breach of their rights
under Article 6 and Article 1 of Protocol No. 1 to the Convention; and that
the economic courts were not competent to examine litigation that did not
VIOREL ŢOPA, VICTOR ŢOPA AND OTHERS v. THE REPUBLIC OF MOLDOVA 9
AND VIOREL ŢOPA, VICTOR ŢOPA AND AND VLADIMIR MORARI
v. THE REPUBLIC OF MOLDOVA
concern the economic activity of a company and which was not between
shareholders (VPR being only the spouse of a shareholder).
The appellate court rejected the appeal, finding that the first instance
court had ruled correctly in annulling the legal acts.
The appellants appealed to the Supreme Court. In addition to the grounds
raised before the Court of Appeal, they contended that there had been a
breach of the principle of random case distribution. However, the Supreme
Court held all their grounds of appeal to be unfounded.
(v) Case 5
Iurie Cobuscean, an associate of Viorel Ţopa and Victor Ţopa, was the
sole shareholder in Maxim Profit Invest SRL. Both Iurie Cobuscean and
Maxim Profit Invest SRL are party to application no. 40339/11.
At a General Shareholders’ Meeting on 15 August 2007, VT transferred
78,970 shares in Victoriabank to Maxim Profit Invest SRL and was
accepted as a second shareholder. VT was not present at that meeting but
was represented by Vladimir Morari, acting pursuant to a power of attorney.
On the same date, by a notarised contract of sale Iurie Cobuscean purchased
VT’s share in Maxim Profit Invest SRL and VT was accordingly removed
from the list of shareholders.
At a General Shareholders’ Meeting on 20 September 2007 OT
transferred 48,951 shares in Victoriabank to Maxim Profit Invest SRL and
was accepted as a shareholder in Maxim Profit Invest SRL. By a notarised
contract of sale dated 18 October 2007 he sold his share in Maxim Profit
Invest SRL to Iurie Cobuscean and was accordingly removed from the list
of shareholders. Like VT, he was represented in these transactions by
Vladimir Morari, acting pursuant to a power of attorney. In both powers of
attorney Vladimir Morari was authorised to represent the principals in
respect of acts related to the alienation of their shares in the bank.
As a consequence of these two transactions, Maxim Profit Invest SRL
held four per cent of shares in Victoriabank.
VT and OT subsequently petitioned the District Economic Court to
annul, inter alia, the decisions of 15 August 2007 and 20 September 2007
on the basis that they had been concluded in violation of the limits of the
power of attorney given to Vladimir Morari, since he was only given power
to represent them in acts relating to the alienation of their shares and not in
the actual alienation of those shares. They further contended that the prices
recorded in the sales agreements were false and had not, in any event, been
paid.
Although the court’s decision indicated that Iurie Cobuscean and Maxim
Profit Invest SRL had been properly summonsed, it noted that they did not
attend the hearing. The court upheld the plaintiffs’ claims, which it
10 VIOREL ŢOPA, VICTOR ŢOPA AND OTHERS v. THE REPUBLIC OF MOLDOVA
AND VIOREL ŢOPA, VICTOR ŢOPA AND AND VLADIMIR MORARI
v. THE REPUBLIC OF MOLDOVA
execution of the power of attorney and the date of payment of the court fees
was much closer to the date of the District Economic Court’s substantive
determinations than the date of entry in the court register. In fact, in four of
the five cases the date of execution of the power of attorney post-dated the
official date of the hearing of the case.
It is the belief of Viorel Ţopa and Victor Ţopa that the entries in the
register were fabricated to conceal the true date on which the cases were
actually issued and to suggest that the cases had been randomly allocated.
(ii) Concealment of the proceedings before the first instance court
Viorel Ţopa and Victor Ţopa point to a series of irregularities which they
believe had as their primary purpose the concealment of the raider attack
prior to the 2010 AGM and which prevented them from frustrating the
attack by seeking relief before the civil courts.
The applicants who were defendants in the five cases state that there was
no pre-action notification of the proceedings and that they did not receive
the final hearing summons. In cases 1, 3, 4 and 5 records show that the
summonses were “served” on 11 March 2010 and returned “undelivered” on
19 March 2010, the date the cases were determined. Section 108 of the
Government’s Decision No. 798 of 18 June 2002 provided that if it was not
possible to hand mail to a recipient it had to be held at the post office for (in
the case of special mail, such as a summons) seven days, after which it was
to be returned. It was therefore practically impossible for these summonses
to have been sent and returned within eight days. Furthermore, Article 108
of the Civil Code required the president of the court to order the public
summoning of a defendant if he or she cannot otherwise be found, despite
all reasonable efforts; however, there is no evidence to suggest that this
procedure was followed in any of these four cases.
In case 2 the summons was returned with a post office certificate stating
that the defendants refused to accept it. However, a certificate from
Vladimir Morari’s local post office indicated that no correspondence was
received in his name and that the signatures on the certificate in the court
file, allegedly coming from that post office, did not belong either to the
postman or to the head of the post office. Viorel Ţopa and Victor Ţopa
believe that the earlier hearing date in case 2 meant that there was
insufficient time to invoke the seven-day rule as justification for the return
of the summons.
The applicants who were defendants in the five cases further claim that
they were not informed of the judgments delivered by the District Economic
Courts, in violation of Article 259 of the Civil Procedure Code.
12 VIOREL ŢOPA, VICTOR ŢOPA AND OTHERS v. THE REPUBLIC OF MOLDOVA
AND VIOREL ŢOPA, VICTOR ŢOPA AND AND VLADIMIR MORARI
v. THE REPUBLIC OF MOLDOVA
Legal proceedings in the United Kingdom and Cyprus disclosed that all
the shares in Victoriabank which were the subject of the five cases were
eventually transferred to a company called OTIV Prim Financial BV
(Holland). The sole shareholder of this company is Finbar Victoria Limited
(Cyprus), a company which is beneficially owned by VP.
On 9 November 2012 the applicants learned that on 11 and 12 October
2012 the State Chamber of Registration had modified the register of legal
entities so as to register new legal owners of Maxim Profit Invest SRL,
Provileg Invest SRL and Financiar Invest SRL (which were previously
owned by Iurie Cobuscan, Victor Jantic and Inna Ilias). These modifications
were based on what the applicants claim were forged minutes of the three
companies’ General Shareholders’ Meetings, which claimed to have
accepted a capital increase so that the new shareholders achieved 94.6% of
each of the three companies’ capital. Four powers of attorney were attached
– which the applicants also claim were forgeries – which authorised three
Ukrainian nationals to represent Iurie Cobuscan, Victor Jantic and Inna Ilias
at the meetings. The three applicants claim that they did not sign the powers
of attorney. They sought to challenge the decisions of the State Chamber of
Registration and asked the court to annul the forged minutes and powers of
attorney. However, their applications were returned by the court on the basis
that they did not contain fax numbers and emails for the plaintiffs.
The CCECC indicted and charged Victor Ţopa and Vladimir Morari with
offences under Article 189 of the Moldovan Criminal Code. They were
indicted before the Buiucani District Court.
On 2 December 2010 the Chairman of the Buiucani District Court
assigned the case to Judge Plamadeala. The Chairman stated that in
accordance with the established procedure, the case should have been
distributed to Judge Girbu, but as she was on sick leave taking care of her
minor child the case had to be assigned to another judge.
At a preliminary hearing on 28 January 2011 Victor Ţopa and
Vladimir Morari were informed that they had been charged with an offence
under Article 189(6) of the Criminal Code, which applies where the offence
of blackmail has been committed “on an especially large scale”. In such a
case, the offence is punishable by a sentence of ten to fifteen years in prison.
During a hearing on 23 February 2011 the lawyer for Victor Ţopa and
Vladimir Morari requested the transfer of the case from the Buiucani
District Court. As the crime had allegedly been carried out in Russia,
Article 40 (3) of the Criminal Procedure Code provided that the competent
courts were the courts in the districts in which the defendants were last
domiciled. In the case of the second and third applicants, these were –
respectively – the Chisinau Centre District Court and the Orhei District
Court. The Buiucani District Court rejected the transfer request.
On 5 October 2011 Judge Plamadeala made an order for the arrest and
detention of Victor Ţopa and Vladimir Morari and listed a hearing for
18 October 2011. An appeal against this order was listed to be heard by the
Court of Appeal on 13 October but was subsequently rescheduled for
19 October. As a consequence, the prosecutor indicated that the hearing
before the District Court had been delayed until 21 October 2011. However,
at the appeal hearing on 19 October 2011 Victor Ţopa and
Vladimir Morari’s lawyer was informed by the Chairman of the Appeal
Panel that the Buiucani District Court had listed the hearing at 12.00 noon
the same day. When the Victor Ţopa and Vladimir Morari’s lawyer went to
the courthouse at noon, it was locked and empty.
According to the court file, a hearing began in the Buiucani District
Court at 2.15 p.m. on 19 October 2011. The court record indicated that
Victor Ţopa and Vladimir Morari had lodged a request asking the court to
examine the case in their absence, and that their lawyer was absent for
“unknown reasons”, despite having been legally summonsed. The case
proceeded in their absence and they were convicted and sentenced to ten
years’ imprisonment in a closed regime.
Victor Ţopa and Vladimir Morari appealed to the Court of Appeal. On
14 September 2012 the Court of Appeal allowed the appeal, re-examined
the case and pronounced a new judgment. By a majority, it found Victor
Ţopa and Vladimir Morari guilty of the offence charged and sentenced them
VIOREL ŢOPA, VICTOR ŢOPA AND OTHERS v. THE REPUBLIC OF MOLDOVA 17
AND VIOREL ŢOPA, VICTOR ŢOPA AND AND VLADIMIR MORARI
v. THE REPUBLIC OF MOLDOVA
In the autumn of 2001 the Office of the General Prosecutor carried out an
investigation into, inter alia, the release of the pledge. The investigation
found that Viorel Ţopa had not committed a criminal offence. In an
ordinance issued on 16 October 2011 the Office of the General Prosecutor
determined that there was no case to be submitted to a court. It contained
the following order:
“To refuse the initiation of a criminal case in respect of the materials concerning the
activity of ‘Banca de Economii’ S.A. due to lack of constitutive elements of an
offence in the deed of a public officer.”
On 11 August 2011 – the same day that the first and second applicants
held a press conference publicly accusing VP of perpetrating the raider
attack against their shares at Victoriabank – the CCECC commenced an
investigation into whether an offence had been committed under
Article 191(5) of the Criminal Code (appropriation of another person’s
property committed on an especially large scale), an offence punishable by
eight to fifteen years’ imprisonment. In a report dated 20 December 2010
the prosecutor considered Viorel Ţopa’s “guilt in committing the offence
provided for by Article 191(5) of the Criminal Code” to be “proven”. As
such, “the prosecution authority [had] no doubts concerning the guilt of
Ţopa Viorel”.
The case was assigned to Judge Simciuc. Once again, the Chairman
stated that in accordance with the established procedure, the case should
have been distributed to Judge Girbu, but as she was on sick leave taking
care of her minor child the case had to be assigned to another judge.
On 20 December 2011 Viorel Ţopa was indicted under Article 191(5)
and Article 335(3) (abuse of position) of the Criminal Code. The indictment
did not specify the nature of the property allegedly appropriated, nor did it
indicate the alleged “especially large scale” of the wrongdoing.
The case was referred to the Buiucani District Court. Viorel Ţopa made
the following interim applications: for disclosure of the bank’s relevant
internal rules and ordinances, for the opportunity to question the witnesses
relied on by the prosecution in its indictment, to rely on the bank’s
regulations and decisions relating to the scope of its President’s authority, to
call witnesses who were members of the bank’s Supervisory Board at the
relevant time, and to call witnesses who were members of the bank’s
Executive Board. All were refused without reasons being given.
On 13 January 2011 Judge Simciuc convicted Viorel Ţopa and sentenced
him to eight years in prison in a closed regime. Viorel Ţopa did not attend
the hearing, having filed a request for the court to consider the case in his
absence. His lawyer conducted the defence on his behalf.
In its judgment, the court found that the withdrawal of the pledge could
only have been accepted by the bank’s Crediting Committee and not by the
Chairman acting unilaterally; and that “misappropriation” included the
VIOREL ŢOPA, VICTOR ŢOPA AND OTHERS v. THE REPUBLIC OF MOLDOVA 19
AND VIOREL ŢOPA, VICTOR ŢOPA AND AND VLADIMIR MORARI
v. THE REPUBLIC OF MOLDOVA
made and evidence submitted by the defence; that the decision of the
appellate court was unfounded and based on an erroneous interpretation of
both the evidence and the law; that the decision of the appellate court did
not set out the factual and/or legal grounds for dismissing the appeal; and
finally, that there had been a breach of his right to a fair trial guaranteed by
Article 6 of the Convention.
On 14 November 2012 the Supreme Court dismissed Viorel Ţopa’s
appeal. It held that the criminal court had jurisdiction to try the case; that the
verdict of the first instance court and the decision of the appellate court
were properly reasoned, based on the available evidence and contained no
legal errors; and finally, that the grounds related to the existence of the
ordinance were “totally unfounded”.
By a letter dated 5 March 2013 the Deputy Prosecutor General confirmed
to Viorel Ţopa’s lawyer that the ordinance of 16 October 2001 had been
found in the report on inspection of the activity of Banca de Economii SA in
the period 1 April 1999-31 December 2001. It further confirmed that,
according to the ordinance, the withdrawal of the pledge on 20 August 2001
had not contravened the legislation then in force.
(c) The applicants’ concerns about the assignment of courts and judges
The two criminal cases were heard by the Buiucani District Court which
the applicants believe lacked competence. Pursuant to Article 40 of the
Criminal Procedure Code, cases should be heard by the court in the
territorial jurisdiction in which the crime was committed. Where a crime
was committed outside Moldova, it should be heard by the court in the
territorial jurisdiction of the last permanent domicile of the defendant. As
the blackmail forming the basis of the charges against Victor Ţopa and
Vladimir Morari took place in Russia, the case against them should have
been heard in the Chisinau Centre District Court and the Orhei District
Court (being the courts in the districts of their last permanent domicile).
However, the Buiucani District Court refused their request to transfer the
case. Similarly, the case against Viorel Ţopa should have been heard in the
Chisinau Centre District Court as both he and the Banca de Economii were
domiciled in that district.
The applicants also believed that there was a breach of the principle of
the random allocation of cases. According to Article 344 of the Criminal
Procedure Code, cases should be allocated to judges in alphabetical order by
their last names, although deviations are permitted when a judge is seriously
ill or where there are other justified grounds. Both cases were initially
assigned to Judge Girbu, who was on sick leave to take care of her child.
According to the applicants, if this was true the cases should have been
assigned to the next judge in alphabetical order. This did not happen in
either case.
VIOREL ŢOPA, VICTOR ŢOPA AND OTHERS v. THE REPUBLIC OF MOLDOVA 21
AND VIOREL ŢOPA, VICTOR ŢOPA AND AND VLADIMIR MORARI
v. THE REPUBLIC OF MOLDOVA
an action plan was adopted on 16 February 2012. The aim of the Justice
Sector Reform Strategy was to “strengthen the independence,
accountability, impartiality, efficiency and transparency of the judicial
system” and it was designed around the following seven pillars: the judicial
system; criminal justice; access to justice and enforcement of court
decisions; integrity of the justice system players; the role of justice in
economic development; human rights in the justice system; and well
coordinated, managed, and accountable justice system. No significant
legislative reform was carried out until mid-2016 when Parliament adopted
Law no. 76. This law provided for the merger of forty-four first instance
courts into fifteen over a ten-year period. The specialised – commercial and
military – courts were the first to be abolished on 1 April 2017.
The Justice Sector Reform Strategy 2018-2021 aims to consolidate and
continue the reforms already implemented.
5. The right of private property carries with it the duty to observe the rules
regarding the protection of the environment, the maintenance of good neighbourly
relations and the observance of all the other duties that have to be fulfilled by owners
of private property under the law.
6. The right to inherit private property shall be guaranteed.”
president or vice-president of the court shall decide which of the judges on the panel
will preside at the hearing.”
The summonsing of defendants is addressed in Article 236, which states:
“(1) A person shall be summonsed to a criminal investigative body or to the court
by a written summons. Summonsing may also be performed by a telephone or
telegraph note or other electronic means.
(2) Summonsing shall be performed so that the person summonsed is served the
summons at least five days prior to the date when he/she is supposed to appear before
the respective body. This rule shall not apply to the summonsing of the
suspect/accused/defendant or other participants in the proceedings when urgent
procedural actions need to be undertaken as part of the criminal investigation or the
case trial.
(3) The summons shall be served by the agent authorized to serve a summons
(hereinafter referred to as the agent) or by the postal service.”
According to Article 64, suspects shall have the right to a defence and
the criminal investigative body shall provide the suspect with the possibility
to exercise his or her right to a defence through all the means and methods
allowed by the law.
2015, the SCM had not reported on the subject. This can be seen as tolerance of
misconduct.
...
Conclusions and Recommendations
Despite the Government of Moldova’s encouraging assessment of the justice
reform, the real picture is less inspiring. In September 2014 - September 2015 no
substantial new actions were undertaken. Many of the achievements reported by the
Government did not lead to positive results. It is clear that justice reform is on hold
and that, without the stronger and more vocal engagement of EU institutions, there
will be little, if any, progress in this field. The country also remains highly vulnerable
to corruption despite a rather developed national integrity system, aimed at
preventing, detecting and fighting corruption. The main cause of the stalled progress
is the lack of independence of law enforcement and regulatory bodies. The corruption
scandals that destabilised the socio-economic and political situation in Moldova
illustrate the ineffectiveness of and political control over the anti-corruption
institutions. Nonetheless, the Government has undertaken important steps including
adopting a legal instrument to protect against discrimination on all grounds and
creating a national anti-discrimination mechanism. However, there are important
limitations in the Law on Equality and concerns remain about the standards on non-
discrimination in the judiciary.”
The JSRS declared the promotion and implementation of zero tolerance for
justice sector corruption as a key objective, but Moldova has a long way to go, as
the 2017 surveys of court users show. Delays in JSRS implementation have already
cost Moldova about EUR1.8 million in lost EU financial support for the justice sector.
A major red flag was the perception that the SCM shielded judges from criminal
prosecution. Information systems were found to be vulnerable to manipulation and
corruption. The electronic system of random assignment of cases, the Integrated Case
Management System (ICMS), was introduced to limit corruption in the courts. In
December 2014, an investigation began against eight employees of a Chisinau district
court suspected of manipulating the ICMS between 2012 and 2014 so that certain
cases (concerning large monetary claims) were allocated to specific judges. Despite
the JSRS’s stated zero tolerance for corruption, actual anti-corruption actions and
practices do not appear to have wrought actual change on the ground.”
The report further noted that although major reforms had targeted the
General Prosecutor’s Office concerns over prosecutorial independence
remained.
networks because they were assured of high political support. The cases against the
judges have been pending since August 2017.
Several other negative trends have eroded public trust in the (independence of the)
judiciary. One is the phenomenon of closed hearings in high-profile cases such as that
of Moldova’s ex-Prime Minister Filat, sentenced to nine years in prison for, inter alia,
passive corruption. The first instance and appeals courts heard the case in closed
proceedings. On 22 February 2017, the supreme court rejected Filat’s appeal in a
written procedure. Only the decision of the supreme court was published in full. Two
other notorious cases concerned the ‘billion-dollar theft’ from the Moldovan banking
sector. Examining such cases behind closed doors fuels the perception of abuse
among the public.”
According to the report, six days before the sentence in Mr Filat’s case
was issued by the first instance court, the SCM adopted a new ‘Regulation
on publishing court decisions’, according to which decisions of cases
examined behind closed doors were not to be published on its website. The
previous regulation from 2008 did not provide such a limitation and all
court decisions were published.
The report further observed that neither the Constitutional Court nor the
Supreme Court had “taken any decision that would run directly counter to
the interests of the Democratic Party of Moldova”.
COMPLAINTS
All of the applicants in application no. 40339/11 complain under
Article 6 of the Convention about the conduct of the five cases which they
claim formed the basis of the “raider attack”. In particular, they complain
that the domestic courts lacked independence and impartiality; that they
were not afforded equality of arms; and that the domestic courts provided no
or insufficient reasons for judgments that were wholly inconsistent with
domestic law. They also complain under Article 1 of Protocol No. 1 that
they were arbitrarily deprived of their proprietary rights and interests in
Victoriabank.
In respect of the criminal proceedings, Viorel Ţopa, Victor Ţopa and
Vladimir Morari complain under Article 6 of the Convention that they were
denied the right to participate effectively in their trials, that the principle of
“equality of arms” was not respected, that their cases were not heard before
an “independent and impartial tribunal established by law”, and that the
outcome of the trials was pre-judged in breach of the presumption of
innocence.
APPENDIX
APPENDIX 2
Case 1 2 3 4 5
Entry in Court 29 18 December 29 8 December 23
register September 2009 September 2009 November
2009 2009 2009
Case no. 2e-13318/09 2e-13194/09 2e-10972/09 2e-12800/09 2e-11059/09
Payment of 3-5 March 3-5 March 4 March 3-5 March 3-5 March
court fee 2010 2010 2010 2010 2010
Execution of 18 March 1 March 17 February 19 March 19 March
Power of 2010 2010 2010 2010 2010
Attorney
First hearing None in None in None in None in None in
summons court file court file court file court file court file
First hearing 4 March 3 March 11 December 3 February 3 February
2010 2010 2009 2010 2010
Final hearing 11 March 5 March 11 March 11 March 11 March
summons 2010 2010 2010 2010 2010
Final hearing 19 March 11 March 19 March 19 March 19 March
2010 2010 2010 2010 2010
District Plugari Rotari Rotari Namaşco Namaşco
Economic
Court judge
District 19 March 11 March 19 March 19 March 19 March
Economic 2010 2010 2010 2010 2010
Court
judgment
Economic Colenco, Moraru, Colenco, Colenco, Colenco,
Court of Clim, Clim, Clim, Clim, Clim,
Appeals Harmaniuc Harmaniuc Harmaniuc Harmaniuc Harmaniuc
judges
Economic 21 16 August 16 16 16
Court of September 2010 September September September
Appeals 2010 2010 2010 2010
judgment
Supreme Court Moldovanu, Muruianu, Muruianu, Moldovanu, Moldovanu,
judges Barba, Moldovanu, Barba, Barba, Barba,
Vilcov Vilcov Vilcov Vilcov Vilcov
Supreme Court 12 January 29 December 28 December 29 December 29 December
judgment 2011 2010 2010 2010 2010