Court session on file of former Moldovan PM postponed over defendant's health condition
16:01 | 21.06.2016 Category: Social
Chisinau, 21 June /MOLDPRES/ - The court session on the file of the former Moldovan PM, Vlad Filat, planned for today, was postponed, on grounds that the defendant lost his consciousness in the court room. Filat’s lawyer Igor Popa made statements to this effect today.
According to Popa, the session was adjourned for 22 June at 10:00.
“Vlad Filat has been on hunger strike for 20 days already, and not for 17, as some people say. The conditions of his detention have toughened since the starting of the hunger strike. He was not allowed to speak by phone, he was not able to meet his parents and he did not enjoy qualified medical assistance from outside the penitentiary. From the beginning of the session, I asked the court that my client be consulted by a neurologist and cardiologist, as he had heart aches. Vlad Filat fainted away in the waiting room of the law court, a thing confirmed also by emergency physicians. It is not about just a mere weakness, it is something more serious. In such conditions, he is no longer able to participate in court sessions,” Popa said.
At the same time, the lawyer specified that Vlad Filat had been carried to penitentiary No 13. Yet, “there are no qualified doctors in all sectors there, who could intervene in emergencies; therefore, we demanded that he is transported to the Emergency Hospital, but we were refused.”
For her part, prosecutor Adriana Betisor said that the judicial debates were to be held today; yet, they were postponed for 22 June, over the defendant’s health problems.
“The court session was adjourned at a request by the lawyer, on grounds that the defendant is weakened and wants to make medical investigations. There is no a certificate by physicians showing that his health condition is serious,” Betisor added.
Former Prime Minister Vlad Filat was detained on 15 October 2015 based on businessman Ilan Shor’s self-denouncement, according to which he had bribed the former prime minister by giving him 250 million dollars. The accusations were denied by Vlad Filat. He has been under preventive arrest for almost eight months, facing charges of influence peddling and passive corruption in the bank scam at the former Savings Bank.
(Reporter P. Beregoi, editor M. Jantovan)