The Prosecutor’s Office of Moldova opened a case on usurpation of power in connection with an attempt to replace the head of the Constitutional Court

The Prosecutor’s Office of Moldova for Combating Organized Crime and Special Cases (PCCOCS) for the first time aroused a criminal case on usurpation of power in April 2021. Then the deputies from the Party of Socialists and the Shor party, which had a parliamentary majority, tried to appoint ex-prosecutor Boris Lupashka as a judge of the Constitutional Court. At the same time, the chairman of the Constitutional Court, Domnika Manole, was unlawfully removed from her duties, the prosecutor’s office said.

Investigators claim that this is about “the usurpation of the office of judge of the Constitutional Court, as well as the usurpation of power in the country.”

In April 2021, a constitutional crisis erupted in Moldova, when the judges of the Constitutional Court granted the request of President Maia Sandu to declare the parliament incapacitated, since the deputies twice rejected her proposed Prime Minister candidacy. This allowed the head of state dissolve parliament and call early elections.

The deputies argued that the decision was made in violation of the Constitution, since the president, contrary to the established procedure, put forward candidates who were not agreed with them and refused to consider the candidate they proposed for the post of prime minister.

The decision to replace Manole with Lupashka was made by parliamentarians on April 23. A day later, deputies of the opposition Action and Solidarity Party Sergiu Litvinenko and Virgiliu Pyslariuc appealed to the Prosecutor General’s Office, demanding to investigate the “attempt to usurp power.” The then Prosecutor General Alexander Stoyanoglo refused to open a criminal case.

The president, whose support was expressed by the ambassadors of the United States, Romania and a number of other European countries, called on her supporters to protest in the streets, and the security forces not to comply with the decisions of parliament. She also ordered to secure the courthouse in order to prevent Lupashka from entering it, who was eventually forced to resign.

The Constitutional Court declared unconstitutional the decision of the parliamentary majority to remove Judge Manole from office and adopted a number of decisions that led to early elections. On them a convincing victory received Party “Action and Solidarity”.

At the beginning of October, Prosecutor General Stoyanoglo was removed from office. Criminal cases have been initiated against him on five counts: abuse of office, abuse of power, passive corruption, perjury, trading in influence. By a court decision, he was placed under house arrest for 30 days, transfers Interfax.