More high officials heard within file of former Moldovan PM

Chisinau, 8 April A/MOLDPRES/ - More high officials today were heard within the file of the former Moldovan prime minister, Vlad Filat. Among them, there are the ex-prime minister, Iurie Leanca, the former head of the parliament’s commission for economy, budget and finances, Veaceslav Ionita, ex-deputy finance minister Victor Barbaneagra and the former government secretary general, Victor Bodiu.   

The today court session is part of the hearing of witnesses for the prosecution. The hearings lasted almost six hours. 

Contacted by journalists while leaving the court room, the former PM, Iurie Leanca, said that he “was asked about the diminution of the state’s share at Banca de Economii (Savings Bank, BEM), whether there were interferences about which I knew and whether there would have been better solutions than the decrease of the state’s share at BEM.”  

Leanca noted said that he had also been asked whether he knew that money had been stolen from BEM. The former prime minister answered that “he not only knew, but also was informed, in particular, in December 2013, that the situation was worsening, the financial means being placed outside the country in banks with a doubtful reputation.”  

For his part, Veaceslav Ionita said that, in his capacity of head of parliamentary commission, he conveyed to the National Anticorruption Centre more information on BEM’s fraud, bad credits, and respectively, he was asked where he had got the concerned data from. “I answered that the data had been presented me in written form and orally within the Commission,” Ionita stressed.  

Both Iurie Leanca and Veaceslav Ionita hesitated to provide more details on the hearings, reasoning that the march of investigation could thus be harmed.

Among the witnesses heard within the file of Vlad Filat, there are also businessman Ilan Shor and the manager of the Caravita Ltd company, Ion Rusu.   

According to the prosecutor in charge of the file, Adriana Betisor, “the witnesses heard today fully confirmed the object of the charge of Vlad Filat’s cause and the his influence on the concerned persons.”

At the same time, the lawyer of the former PM, Igor Popa, said that the “testimony given today has no probative and sufficient value for an offence Vlad Filat can be charged with.”

The former prime minister, Vlad Filat, was detained on 15 October 2015 on the basis of a self-denunciation by Ilan Shor, who said that he had bribed Filat with 250 million dollars.

Vlad Filat has been under preventive detention for almost six months; he is accused of influence peddling and passive bribery in the file of Banca de Economii fraud.   

(Reporter A. Plitoc, editor L. Alcaza)