Manager of Caravita company heard in case of file of former Moldovan premier

Chisinau, 12 March /MOLDPRES/ - The manager of the Caravita Ltd company, Ion Rusu, has maintained his previous statements made in the file of the former prime minister, Vlad Filat, cause prosecutor Adriana Betisor has said. At the same time, the lawyer of Vlad Filat, Igor Popa, said the testimony given by Ion Rusu today proved the non-culpability of Vlad Filat.     

A court session on considering on the merits the case of accusing the former PM, Vlad Filat, continued today. The witnesses are heard based on a self-denunciation by businessman Ilan Sor, who said that he had given Filat a bribe worth 250 million dollars.

According to Adriana Betisor, at the session, “witness Ion Rusu supported the earlier made statements and answered questions put by both sides.”

Prosecutor Betisor hesitated to provide other information, reasoning that the court session was closed for journalists. “We are to meet at the next sessions and continue hearing the witnesses for the prosecution,” Betisor also said.    

For his part, the lawyer of the former prime minister, Vlad Filat, Igor Popa, said that “what Ion Rusu has stated today does not represent incriminatory elements against the defendant at all. I cannot provide more information, as the trial has a secret character,” Popa added.

Businessman Ilan Sor, on the basis of whose self-denunciation Vlad Filat had been arrested, was heard at the last two court sessions on the file of the former Moldovan prime minister.

Ex-prime minister Vlad Filat was detained on 15 October 2015, under a warrant issued by the National Anticorruption Centre, after the parliament had ruled to strip Filat of immunity. The former premier is charged with influence peddling and passive bribery in the file of frauds from Banca de Economii (Savings Bank).    

(Reporter A. Plitoc, editor L. Alcaza)