European Rights Court Rules against Moldovan Ex-PM

The European Court of Human Rights, ECHR, ruled on Tuesday that the presumption of innocence in a case concerning former Moldovan Prime Minister Vladimir Filat was not violated when he was detained on corruption charges in 2015.

Filat was detained in the premises of parliament immediately after lawmakers voted to lift his immunity on October 15, 2015.

"The ECHR ruled that the article on the presumption of innocence, regarding the statements of officials spread at the time of lifting the parliamentary immunity, was not violated," the court said in its ruling.

Filat was sentenced to nine years in prison in June 2016 for corruption, a sentence confirmed by the Supreme Court of Justice in February 2017.

Instead of being jailed in the Lipcani Penitentiary, where former public officials convicted of crimes are usually taken, Filat was placed in Chisinau's Penitentiary 13 because he was still under investigation for other alleged crimes.

Filat appealed to the ECHR over the conditions of his detention and, after the Strasbourg court ruled in his favour, his sentence was reduced by 685 days and he was released in December 2019.

Writing on Facebook, Filat said that besides Tuesday's ruling another ECHR decision was pending on what he said were the "illegalities committed" during his trial.

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