Warrant of arrest of former Moldovan premier extended by another 90 days

17:44 | 05.01.2016 Category: Social

Chisinau, 5 January /MOLDPRES/ - The warrant of arrest of a former Moldovan prime minister, Vlad Filat, today was extended by another 90 days. The Chisinau Buiucani district court issued the decision, after prosecutors of the National Anticorruption Centre (CNA) had submitted a petition, thereby demanding prolongation of the warrant of arrest of the Liberal Democratic Party's (PLDM) leader, Vlad Filat, by another 90 days.

PLDM leader Vlad Filat was present at the court session. "The show goes on. I plead not guilty," Filat told journalists.

The magistrates ruled that the today's court session be held with closed doors. "Some witnesses might be influenced in the Filat case, and therefore the court session on this file was demanded to be closed. The judges accepted the prosecutor's request to extend the warrant of arrest of the former prime minister, Vlad Filat, by another 90 days. Presently, we work on examining the other suspects involved in this case," prosecutor Adriana Betisor said.

The lawyer of Vlad Filat, Igor Popa, said that "today, the the rights of Mr Filat were once again violated by holding the court session with closed doors, as well as by separate sending of the file to court. We had only two days to study a large number of volumes within the case. We believe that this haste of sending to court is deliberate. We describe the today's decision, as well as the notification act as null. We are to appeal the ruling issued by the judges today at the Court of Appeal," Popa specified.

On 29 December 2015, judges of the Buiucani district court admitted the recusal of judges on the case of MP Vlad Filat. Subsequently, the case was distributed to another three magistrates.

Vlad Filat was detained on 15 October, under a warrant 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 warrant of preventive arrest for 30 days to the former prime minister. On 11 November and 30 December, the judges extended the MP's arrest by another 30 days till 15 January 2016.

(Reporter A. Plitoc, editor M. Jantovan)

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