The Superior Council of Magistracy (SCM) revoked its May 21 decision whereby the file of Vladislav Gribincea, a candidate for the position of judge of the Supreme Court of Justice (SCJ), was rejected as inadmissible, IPN reports.

A week ago, the SCM announced that Vladislav Gribincea didn’t present two references from well-known persons and a medical certificate attesting that he meets the conditions to run for the position of SCJ judge. On Tuesday, however, the plenum of the Council had a medical certificate that existed also on the date when Gribincea had to present it to the SCM.

“The SCM took its decision after the person concerned noted that his situation regarding the respective medical examination is uncertain as he was waiting to be invited by the commission to have the medical checkup. At the same time, the SCM was convinced that previously, when Vladislav Gribincea participated in a competition for the position of prosecutor general, the medical evaluation procedure was carried out in a centralized way and the candidate didn’t pick up the referral from the SCP because the institution sent it to the commission,” said the SCM.

The institution also said that all these, against the norm of the regulations on the selection of SCJ judges, which doesn’t clearly say that the candidate should take the referral in person, were sufficient to ascertain that the person concerned has a medical certificate that he possessed on the day that he was going to present it.

 “Under such circumstances, having also received the previously requested recommendations, using the discretionary right assigned to SCM members, including from the perspective of the Administrative Code, it would be unfair to use such a reason not to allow the candidate to take part in the next stage,” reads a press release of the Council.

Vladislav Gribincea had headed the Legal Resources Centre from Moldova during 2010-2022 and currently holds the interim position of director of the Justice Program. He is a member of the Lawyers Union of the Republic of Moldova and since 2002, he has represented applicants before the European Court of Human Rights, as well as in strategic disputes at national level. He was involved as an expert in drafting the Justice Sector Reform Strategy for 2011-2016 and also in reforming the legislation on judicial organization, civil procedure and criminal procedure.