FRIEDRICH-EBERT-STIFTUNG THE PRE-VETTING PHASES: THE UNSEEN FACE OF JUSTICE REFORM In October 2020, the SCM – maintained with the backing of the Maia Sandu Government after unsuccessful attempts to dismiss it at an extraordinary General Assemblies of Judges – decided to reinstate five of the suspended magistrates and pay their salaries for the entire period of their suspension. At the time, these magistrates were defendants whose cases were pending before the court. The candidate for President of the Republic of Moldova, Maia Sandu, in the 2020 electoral campaign, criticized the reinstate­ment of those judges in very harsh terms, attacking“justice” in general, but“forgetting” to mention the essential role of the SCM. 20 who allowed Laundromat, the theft of the billion to go unpunished or inval­idated democratic elections,” said Maia Sandu 21 . From 2021 to present, the court of first instance has ruled on seven out of 14 indicted judges; the first two decisions were to convict and the five that followed were to acquit. In both con­victiond of the judges involved in the Russian Laundromat, the reporting judge was Alexei Panis. 22 In the first acquittal case of a judge involved in the Russian Laundromat, the re­porting judge was Eugeniu Beșelea, 23 and in two other cases of acquittal the reporting judge was Livia Mitrofan. 24 It is worth mentioning that Ms Mitrofan was also sitting as a member in the panels that has issued convictions. CASE STUDY 2. Moldova’s President Maia Sandu: Judges who laundered billions of dollars through Moldova are reinstated by Dodon’s justice system Facebook, Maia Sandu, 27 October 2020 “Judges who have laundered billions of dollars through Moldova are today re­instated by Dodon’s justice. Thieves feel emboldened, mafiosi feel in power, bandits feel protected. This is Dodon’s Government. There seems to be no end to the lawlessness and debauchery in Dodon’s justice system. After dangerous criminals are released from prisons early, murderers are ac­quitted, today, five of the judges who participated in the Russian Laundromat (the so-called Laundromat through which tens of billions of US dollars were laundered through our country) are reinstated. Instead of being held account­able, these judges will receive millions of lei in compensation. Each of them will get at least 1.2 million lei(around 7 million in total). We will pay this money together with you, for the mess made by Dodon’s justice system. This injus­tice can no longer be tolerated. It is time to bring honest and professional peo­ple into the courts and prosecutors’ offices. And we need to get rid of the cor­rupt and thieves as soon as possible, while we still have someone to rebuild this country.” Supreme Security Council(SSC), 20 March 2023 President Maia Sandu convened the SSC on Monday, 20 March 2023, after the failed election of the members of the SCM. The meeting decided to accelerate the creation of the SCM. “The SCM is to be functional in 30 days, not later. The Parliament will appoint the non-judge members who have passed the evaluation of the Pre-Vetting Commission and from among these members the SCM will be created and it will function regardless of what the judges decide,” the Head of State said. According to her, another recommendation of the SSC was to bring young specialists into the jus­tice system. “The assembly was held with violations. Independence of judges does not mean independence of corruption. Those who can neither justify their for­tunes, nor the abuses they have committed, nor the protection of the cor­rupt have lectured morality to the citizens. We note that justice has been hi­jacked by the common interests of certain judges who let criminals go free, Although the fact that judges did not convict the judges in­volved in Laundromat has always been used as an argument in favour of implementing drastic judicial reforms, in practical terms, the judges who acquitted the judges involved in the Laundromat were more often favoured by the reform than those who convicted them. Thus, Judge Alexei Panis, who issued the first two and so far the only convictions of the judges involved in the Russian Laundromat, was not reappointed by President Maia Sandu to the ceiling. In contrast, Judge Eugeniu Beșelea, who issued the first acquittal of the Laundromat judges, was reappointed by the President to the ceiling age, after being proposed in September 2023 by the newly constituted SCM following the pre-vetting reform. 25 This judge was included in the list of judges selected to consider corruption cases in the Chisinau Court by order of the court’s Interim President, Livia Mitrofan, who also passed the pre-vetting procedure. According to in­formation on the SCM’s website, Eugeniu Beselea was invited to participate in official delegations abroad together with the SCM members. 26 In a recent journalisitc investigation into judges who were promoted to specialise in examining only corruption cases in the Chisinau Court, several judges with alleged affiliations to the person believed to be the author of the Laundromat scheme in Moldova – Veaceslav Platon – were identified. Eugeniu Beșelea has admitted that he acquired a reputation because of the acquittals given to the judges indicted in the ‘Russian Laundromat’. On 2 August 2021, he rejected the pros­ecutors’ request to release the arrest warrant for Veaceslav Platon, who had fled the country a few weeks earlier. 27 20 https://www.facebook.com/maia.sandu/posts/1434981540043794?ref=embed_post 21 https://radiochisinau.md/-justitia-a-fost-sechestrata-de-judecatorii-care-au-lasat-criminali-in-libertate-revista-presei---177651.html 22 Sentencing of Igor Vornicescu on 24 February 2021: https://jc.instante.justice.md/ro/pigd_integration/pdf/dcf18092-0cf2-4b0f-a733-d8a7a8b0696f Sentencing of Sergiu Lebediuc on 26 February 2021: https://jc.instante.justice.md/ro/pigd_integration/pdf/4688de6f-832f-4bfd-8f96-f96535cd08c2 23 Ghenadie Bîrnaz acquitted on 2 March 2021: https://jc.instante.justice.md/ro/pigd_integration/pdf/d221245d-473f-4fde-b050-48e62ba57e7c 24 Gheorghe Marchitan acquitted on 23 September 2022: https://jc.instante.justice.md/ro/pigd_integration/pdf/6f053ca8-20c1-4d17-932c-ea0ad22a911f Sentencing of Seghei Gubenco on 18 August 2023: https: https://jc.instante.justice.md/ro/pigd_integration/pdf/3fc92ce4-201f-40cc-a0ed-16a01883c10a 25 https://www.zdg.md/stiri/stiri-justitie/cererile-a-sapte-judecatori-pentru-numirea-in-functie-pana-la-atingerea-plafonului-de-varsta-respinsi-anteri­or-de-maia-sandu-din-nou-pe-masa-sefei-statului/ 26 https://www.csm.md/ro/noutatii/3718-schimb-de-bune-practici-cu-estonia-in-vederea-eficientizarii-justitiei.html 27 https://tv8.md/2024/08/13/foto-cine-sunt-judecatorii-anticoruptie-din-moldova-averi-interese-si-dosare-controversate-partea-i/263494 18