European Court of Human Rights decision: Government will have to pay Vlad Filat 7,500 euros in damages for unfair trial
The ECtHR has ruled that former Prime Minister Vlad Filat's right to a fair trial was violated. The Court also awarded Filat €7,500 in moral damages.
The Court's decision concerns criminal proceedings in which Vlad Filat was tried and convicted in 2016. The former PM appealed to the ECHR on the fact that he was tried in a closed-door trial that resulted in the violation of several fundamental rights and freedoms, invoking Article 6 of the Convention - the right to a fair trial.
Vlad Filat was arrested on 15 October 2015, when he was a member of parliament. He was sentenced to 9 years in prison in June 2016 in a case related to bank fraud in 2014. Vlad Filat has said that his case was politically motivated and allegedly brought at the behest of former PDM leader Vlad Plahotniuc. Vlad Filat was released early in December 2019 on the basis of ECtHR rulings and laws providing for reduced sentences due to poor prison conditions.
