6.  The applicant was born in 1960 and lives in Chisinau. 7.  In 2000 the applicant lent 10,000 United States dollars (USD) to A. When A. was only able to return USD 2,500, they agreed, together with T. (A.’s wife at the time), to sell their apartment to the applicant in order to guarantee the return, in instalments, of the outstanding debt. The agreement (signed on 10 November 2000) stated that should the instalments be paid, the applicant would sell the apartment back to T. 8.  Pursuant to that agreement, on 11 December 2000, the applicant concluded a contract for the purchase of the apartment from T. The contract specified the address and surface area of the apartment and confirmed that, before concluding the contract, the applicant had paid the entire price freely agreed on by the parties, namely 96,720 Moldovan lei (MDL) (the equivalent of USD 7,818 at the time). 9.  In accordance with the contract, the former owner (T.) was to vacate the apartment by 1 April 2001. When A. failed to pay any instalments, the applicant requested the family to vacate the apartment. They refused to do so and the applicant initiated court proceedings for their eviction. T. lodged a counter-claim, requesting the annulment of the contract of sale because in reality she had only intended to guarantee, through the contract, the return of her husband’s debt to the applicant. 10.  The Centru District Court found in favour of the applicant on 11 June 2001, rejecting T.’s counter-claim. On 17 October 2001 the Chişinău Regional Court upheld the District Court’s judgment. On 7 February 2002 the Court of Appeal also upheld that judgment. This judgment was final and enforceable. 11.  T. wrote to a number of State authorities (the President, the Government, the Parliament, etc.) asking them to help re-open the proceedings. On 22 April 2002 Mr V. Mişin, a vice-president of the Parliament, wrote to the Prosecutor General asking him to initiate the re-opening of proceedings before the Supreme Court of Justice. The letter was annexed to the case-file. 12.  On 5 May 2002 the Prosecutor General filed a request for the annulment of all the above-mentioned judgments and for the re-opening of the proceedings. On 10 July 2002 the Supreme Court of Justice upheld the Prosecutor General’s request for annulment and ordered a full re-hearing of the case in the first-instance court. The court found that the lower courts had not paid sufficient attention to the fact that the applicant had lent USD 10,000 to T.’s husband and that T. had concluded the contract for the sale of the apartment with the specific intention of guaranteeing the return of the money and not of actually selling it. In its view, “the totality of circumstances mentioned cast doubt on the well-founded character, lawfulness and fairness of the judgments adopted in the case”. 13.  On 4 December 2002 the Centru District Court found in T.’s favour and declared the contract of sale null and void, rejecting the applicant’s request for eviction. That judgment was upheld on 12 February 2003 by the Chişinău Regional Court and on 8 May 2003 by the Court of Appeal.