Moldovan prosecutors submit application to Orhei city council on temporarily suspending local mayor from post

Chisinau, 4 July /MOLDPRES/ - Anticorruption prosecutors have submitted an application to the Orhei city council on temporary suspension of Orhei mayor Ilan Shor from office during the carrying out of the inquiry. The head of the Anticorruption Prosecutor’s Office, Viorel Morari, confirmed the information for MOLDPRES.   

“According to the law on local public administration, dealing with the suspension from post of an official recorded in a criminal file, thee concerned powers go the local councils. Under these principles, prosecutors submitted an application to the Orhei local public administration on provisional suspension of Ilan Shor from the position of Orhei mayor during the carrying out of the investigation. The local councilors are to give their opinion on the application in the nearest time,” Morari noted.   

On 24 June 2016, Orhei mayor Ilan Shor was issued a warrant of arrest for 30 days in a file on money laundering and swindle in very large amount. The mayor’s lawyers appealed the ruling by magistrates of the Buiucani district court of Chisinau at the Court of Appeal. Yet, the appeal was turned down.  

Anticorruption officers detained Ilan Shor on 22 June in a new criminal file. Shor is charged with swindle in very large amount, money laundering and providing bad credits on the period when holding the office of chairman of the administrative board of Banca de Economii (Savings Banks, BEM).

The Prosecutor General’s Office initiated criminal proceedings against him back in December 2014 on dubious transactions between Banca de Economii and Banca Sociala. In May 2015, the businessman was placed under home arrest for 30 days, with a status of defendant in the BEM file. Shor’s lawyers turned down the charges brought by prosecutors, noting that he pleads not guilty. 

(Reporter P. Beregoi, editor M. Jantovan)