Witnesses for defence did not come to court session on former Moldovan PM's file

17:43 | 17.05.2016 Category: Social

Chisinau, 17 May /MOLDPRES/ - None of the five witnesses for defence, who were to be heard at the today court session on the file of the former Moldovan prime minister Vlad Filat, has come to the Buiucani district court of Chisinau. The lawyer of the former PM, Igor Popa, made statements to this effect today.

According to Popa, “most likely, the witnesses were intimidated. If the person does not come, he/she must inform about this. Subsequently, he/she may be brought forcibly or get judicial fines. Among the subpoenaed persons, there is the former governor of the National Bank of Moldova, Dorin Dragutanu; yet, he has not come, hence he is to pay a fine. As for the other witnesses, I tried to speak with some of them; yet, they told me that they cannot come to court and know anything about this case,” Popa said.

“I submitted an application, thereby demanding that the witnesses be forcibly brought to court, in order to ensure equality of chances of both sides involved in the trial,” Popa added.

The prosecutor for the case, Adriana Betisor, said that the court on 18 May was to give its ruling on whether the persons would be brought forcibly or not. “All the 14 witnesses for defence were to be brought to the session by representatives of the defence side. Nevertheless, without any evidence, the latter said they cannot ensure the presence of the persons heard. At the same time, no evidence of witnesses’ subpoenaing has been presented,” Betisor said.

Also today, the magistrates rejected an application by lawyers on holding the court sessions publicly.

The former prime minister, Vlad Filat, was detained on 15 October 2015, under a self-denunciation by Ilan Shor, who said that he would have given the former PM a bribe worth 250 million dollars, with charges turned down by Filat. Vlad Filat has been under preventive arrest for over six months. He is accused of influence peddling and passive corruption in the file of Banca de Economii (Savings Bank) fraud.

(Reporter A. Plitoc, editor M. Jantovan)

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