Former Moldovan PM put under 30-day preventive arrest

Chisinau, 18 October /MOLDPRES/- Former Prime Minister Vlad Filat was put under preventive arrest for 30 days. A decision in this respect was issued by Buiucani district court of Chisinau on 18 October.

The hearing lasted for about eight hours and the court ruled just 30 minutes before the expiry of the former premier’s felony warrant, who had been accused of influence peddling, frauds and passive bribery. Two groups of protesters outside shouted pro and anti-Filat slogans during the court trial.

Vlad Filat’s lawyer, Igor Popa, asked the court to postpone the deadline, as he had not had enough time to analyse the large amount of documents. However, the prosecutor Adriana Betisor, who is an employee of the National Anticorruption Centre (CNA), opposed the postponement and requested that the former premier is put under preventive arrest.  

Betisor told journalists that the “demarche providing for Filat’s 30-day preventive detention had been approved”.

For his part, Popa expressed regret that the trial took that long.

“The court ruled that Vlad Filat is put under 30 days of preventive detention. Usually, the law does not entitle lawyers to comment on such rulings. I just want to say that our team of lawyers will surely go further. We plan to appeal against the ruling in the Chisinau Court of Appeal; if it does not work, we will bring our claim before the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR),” Popa said.

The former premier’s lawyer had made two more statements.

“Vlad Filat filed a criminal complaint against Ilan Shor, who made false statements. Certain documents, confirming this fact, had been attached to the complaint. I would also like to touch upon the publication of the prosecution case papers in the mass media, which had severely violated Vlad Filat’s right of defence, as well as, his presumption of innocence. We hope that law-enforcement bodies will take notice and will start a criminal case to track down the one who is guilty of these violations. Filat filed a request asking the court to proceed in his absence, on the grounds of having a high blood pressure,” Popa added.

Shortly after being stripped off parliamentary immunity by the Moldovan parliament, Vlad Filat was detained on 15 October, on suspicion of bank fraud and bribery, based on a felony warrant issued by the CNA. Moldovan Prosecutor General Corneliu Gurin asked for depriving former Prime Minister Vlad Filat from immunity, on suspicion of his direct involvement in the financial frauds at the Savings Bank (Banca de Economii).

(Reporter N. Roibu, Editor A. Raileanu)