CASE OF RIMSCHI v. THE REPUBLIC OF MOLDOVA
Violation of Article 5 - Right to liberty and security (Article 5-3 - Length of pre-trial detention)
Ján Šikuta;Johannes Silvis;Josep Casadevall;Kristina Pardalos;Luis López Guerra
5. The applicant was born in 1952 and lives in Chişinău. At the time of the events he was an academic and member of the Moldovan Academy of Science. 6. On 21 July 2009 the applicant was arrested and charged with the offence of producing and putting into circulation counterfeit money. Since then he has remained remanded in custody pending criminal investigation and trial. The detention warrants were prolonged every month initially and every three months once the case had reached the Ialoveni District Court. Each time the reasons given for the detention were that the applicant had been accused of a serious offence punishable with imprisonment of up to fifteen years, that the criminal case was complex and that, if released, he might interfere with the investigation or collude with other co-accused, or abscond or reoffend. 7. The last two extensions of the applicant’s detention before the lodging of the present application took place on unspecified dates in May and August 2011. The applicant argued that there was no risk of his interfering with the investigation since all the witnesses and the parties to the proceedings had already been heard and all the evidence had been examined by the court. He also submitted that there were no reasons to believe that he would abscond or re-offend and agreed to be placed under house arrest if he could not be released. The applicant also argued that according to Article 186 § 8, once the case had been referred to a court, the detention could not last longer than six months, other than in exceptional cases. 8. The Ialoveni District Court dismissed the applicant’s arguments and, relying on the same grounds as before, extended his detention for a further three months. The court stated that the case was exceptional within the meaning of Article 186 § 9 of the Code of Criminal Procedure. The decisions of May and August 2011 contain similar wording. The applicant’s appeals against them were rejected by the Court of Appeal. 9. On 30 January 2012 the applicant was convicted and sentenced to twelve years’ imprisonment. His appeal was dismissed by the Court of Appeal on 10 April 2013 and the Court has not been informed about the proceedings before the Supreme Court of Justice.