Judge Eduard Galușteac has returned the lawsuit filed by Olesea Stamate against Prime Minister Dorin Recean. The former chair of the Legal Commission and ex-member of the PAS party took the Prime Minister to court following his comments amid the scandal surrounding the Amnesty Law. Initially, the court granted Stamate time to correct some deficiencies in the lawsuit. Although she submitted the requested documents, the lawsuit was still deemed incomplete. Specifically, the former MP failed to specify the wording of the retraction she expected Recean to make public if she won the case. The ruling, issued on June 17, can be appealed at the Chișinău Court of Appeal – Central division, within 15 days.

During the height of the scandal sparked by the Amnesty Law, which opened the door for the conditional release of some inmates sentenced to life imprisonment, Prime Minister Dorin Recean stated:

“We were recently on the brink of a moral and institutional catastrophe. The problem wasn’t the law itself, but the amendments quietly slipped in afterward — amendments that could have led to the mass release of dangerous criminals. The second major factor was the abuse within the judicial system and the National Penitentiary Administration. The abusive application of the law in favor of criminals was made possible only due to amendments cleverly introduced into an apparently legal framework, with silent complicity. Such schemes of legislative manipulation to benefit dangerous criminals or act against the public interest must never be repeated.”

Stamate responded that the Prime Minister’s statements were “quite serious.”

“I’m surprised that Mr. Prime Minister no longer names judges during government meetings, as he used to. I myself criticized his habit of naming judges whom he believed were responsible for potentially problematic rulings. I see that this practice has stopped. In this case, there are reasonable doubts regarding the legality of certain rulings made by some judges concerning the situation of inmates,” said Stamate.

Following the scandal, PAS deputies amended the Amnesty Law again, so that individuals whose sentences were reduced or changed could no longer be conditionally released before completing their term.