Chisinau-based Court of Appeal rejects appeal by lawyers of former premier
17:14 | 17.12.2015 Category: Political
Chisinau, 17 December /MOLDPRES/ - The Chisinau-based Court of Appeal today rejected the appeal by lawyers of the former prime minister Vlad Filat against a 10 December ruling by the Buiucani district court of Chisinau, which provides for extending Filat's preventive arrest by another 30 days.
Liberal Democrat Vladimir Filat was not present at the court session. The prosecutor said that an application had been submitted, demanding that the session should take place in the absence of the former prime minister; yet, no reasons in terms of the health condition were presented.
After two hours of session, prosecutor Adriana Betisor said that, "meanwhile, we have heard also other witnesses, who confirmed some information. We gathered evidence, documents, which prove a part of what is put down in the denunciation. We do not know the stance of Mr. Filat, as he has not made official statements," Betisor said.
The lawyer of the former prime minister, Igor Popa, said he did not agree with the magistrates' decision, on grounds that more procedural infringements had been discovered.
"We do not agree with judges' ruling, at least for two reasons: the evidence has been gathered with serious infringements of the procedure, respectively, it it is null. Secondly, we suppose that the witnesses and denouncers from this criminal file were psychically compelled to give evidence. Mr. Filat has not made statements, as he does not trust the actors doing justice in Moldova. We will give evidence only to impartial and objective actors," Popa said.
Vlad Filat was detained on 15 October, under a warrant of arrest issued by the National Anticorruption Centre, after the parliament had ruled to strip him of immunity.
On 18 October, the Buiucani district court of Chisinau issued a preventive arrest warrant against the former prime minister for 30 days. On 11 November and afterwards on 10 December, the judges prolonged the arrest of the MP by another 30 days till 14 December and, respectively, 13 January.
(Reporter A. Plitoc, editor M. Jantovan)
