Three more witnesses heard in former Moldovan premier’s file

Chisinau, 29 March /MOLDPRES/-Prosecution witnesses confirmed all the circumstances of the self-denouncement made by businessman Ilan Shor, based on which former Prime Minister Vlad Filat was arrested. A statement to this effect was made by prosecutor Adriana Betisor today. At the same time, the lawyer of Vlad Filat, Igor Popa, said witnesses were not credible, as they were Shor’s employees.  

The meeting on the substantive examination of former Prime Minister Filat’s accusation cause continued today. Witnesses were heard based on Shor’s self-denouncement, who bribed Filat with 250 million dollars.

According to Betisor, three witnesses were heard during the meeting. All of them confirmed “supplying some banking cards with money from the Savings Bank, which the accused received as remuneration,” Betisor said.

For his part, Popa noted that “heard witnesses are manipulated by Ilan Shor and are not credible. One of the witnesses’ testimonies made today were different than the ones made during the criminal investigation,” Popa said.

Also today, Chisinau’s Buiucani district court decided to prolong Filat’s preventive arrest warrant by 30 more days. The grounds were the messages posted on Filat’s personal page in a social network, as well as some letters he had sent to prosecution witnesses, which according to prosecutors were intimidating.

During the meeting, Vlad Filat’s lawyer asked that prosecutor Adriana Betisor, who is in charge of the case, be disqualified, as she “violated Filat’s presumption of innocence,” Popa noted. The judges of Buiucani district court rejected the request.

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. Filat is accused of influence peddling and passive corruption in the Savings Bank bank fraud.

(Reporter A. Plitoc, Editor M. Jantovan)