Moldovan top court orders putting businessman under home arrest for 30 days

Chisinau, 5 August /MOLDPRES/- Orhei mayor Ilan Shor has been released from preventive detention and placed under home arrest for a 30-day period. Magistrates of the Chisinau Court of Appeal took the decision today.

The culprit's lawyer, Denis Ulanov, said that the court’s ruling was “groundless in terms of evidence presented by the state prosecutor, to be put under home arrest. Shor had to be investigated at large”, the lawyer said.

For his part, case prosecutor Andrei Baiesu said that “the defence presented more health certificates from abroad confirming the bad health condition of the defendant, which were not confirmed by the doctors from our country. We hope that the change of the arrest measure will not influence the march of the investigation, as well as the witnesses on the case.”

The court’s ruling stipulates that “when placing under home arrest, the defendant will be left without passport, will be banned from leaving the home, phone conversations and correspondence will be intercepted. Also, he will be obliged to answer calls made by the investigation body at any time.”

Ilan Shor was arrested by the anti-corruption officers on 22 June on a new criminal case. He was accused of swindle in especially large proportions, money laundering and offering bad loans during the period of holding the position of head of the Board of Directors of the Savings Bank (Banca de Economii).

The Prosecutor General’s Office started a criminal investigation against Shor in December 2014 for suspicious transactions between BEM and Social Bank. In May 2015, the businessman was placed under home arrest for 30 days, having the status of accused in the BEM case. His lawyers rejected the accusations brought by prosecutors, noting that he pleads not guilty.

(Reporter P. Beregoi, editor M. Jantovan)