Moldova’s first pro-EU prime minister Vlad Filat (2009-2013), sentenced in November 2016 to nine years in prison for his involvement in the $1bn banking frauds, has filed a complaint against the state of Moldova to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) claiming his trial was unfair, media reported on August 10 quoting Filat’s lawyer Igor Popa.

The objections outlined by Popa are related to the treatment given to Filat during the trial, rather than to factors that might change the final ruling such as the court refusing to hear witnesses or consider evidence. While the ECHR might rule that some compensation is due to the former prime minister, the court is not expected to challenge the final sentence or rule that Filat must be retried.

Filat has constantly claimed that he is a mere scapegoat while the real beneficiary of the $1bn frauds is his political rival Vlad Plahotniuc, currently the head of the pro-EU ruling coalition, helped by businessman Ilan Shor, who was sentenced this June to seven and a half years in prison in same $1bn theft case. Plahotnuic has denied involvement in the frauds. 

Filat complained about the court breaching his right to a private life, that he was unnecessarily kept under arrest during the trial and that his case was made public without him being given the right to make his defence publicly, Popa explained. Filat also claimed that the court refused to allow the public to attend his trial.

“I was the victim of a trial held under obscure, nearly clandestine circumstances, having been forbidden the right to communicate to the mass media … No evidence was produced [by the prosecution] that my trial under public circumstances would have impeded the legitimate interest of the justice being done,” Filat wrote in his complaint.

The former prime minister and his lawyers made more substantial accusations during the trial. At the time, Filat claimed that the prosecution had used the statements of key witnesses with unclear, potentially fake, identities. 

The Moldova Court of Appeal sentenced Filat to nine years imprisonment last November, after the former premier received a similar sentence from an ordinary court earlier the same year.

Filat was sentenced to nine years in prison for passive corruption and influence peddling in a case related to the $1bn banking sector fraud in the country. The court also confiscated assets worth MDL796mn (€36mn) from the former prime minister.

The case against Filat was essentially grounded on the testimony of Shor, who claimed he gave a $250mn bribe to the former prime minister. Filat has urged the prosecution to identify the $250mn allegedly taken as a bribe.

“The prosecutor had at least 20 witnesses, while we had only two, because they either refused or were intimidated,” Popa claimed at that time.

Popa also complained that the judges in the case had become biased against Filat after the former prime minister asked for them to be replaced. 

Three witnesses supposedly involved in the transfer of bribes from Shor to the former Moldovan prime minister were never heard during Filat’s trial, research by investigative journalism portal anticoruptie.md has revealed.

The three witnesses were all young female Russian citizens. Two of them, contacted by anticoruptie.md, claimed that they were not aware of the transfers and had never visited Moldova. They also said they were never heard by the court during the trial, according to the portal, which is financed by Freedom House and the government of Norway.