Moldovan judges issue warrant of arrest for Balti city mayor for 30 days

Chisinau, 24 October /MOLDPRES/ - The law court of the Centru district of Chisinau today issued a warrant of preventive arrest against the Balti city mayor, leader of Our Party Renato Usatii. Also, the court put Usatii on an international wanted list.

Prosecutor Vitalie Busuioc has said that one of the arguments underlying the issuing of the warrant arrest was the fact that Renato Usatii had been repeatedly subpoenaed by law-enforcement bodies; yet, he avoided to come to court. ‘’For these reasons and the others, set forth in the petition, the decision of preventive arrest for 30 days was taken. This is a legal procedure. He is to be put on a wanted list; thus, this measure will be applied by the bodies of the state where he is now,’’ Busuioc said.   

For his part, the lawyer of Renato Usatii, Ion Cerga, said the decision would be groundless and the arguments of the defence were not taken into consideration. ‘’The decision on the following actions will be taken together. The law-enforcement bodies try to wipe off  traces of the people who are really concerned in this file. During one week, we will present documents from London and Romania, which were concerned in this file. The today’s ruling will be appealed,’’ Cerga said.  

Balti city mayor Renato Usatii is defendant in a criminal file on an attempt of murder of a Russian businessman, German Gorbuntsov, who was target of an attack in London on 20 March 2012. Even if eight bullets were shot into Gorbuntsov, the businessman managed to survive.

Last week, prosecutor Vitalie Busuioc said that two persons had been detained for attempt to influence Vitalie Proca, the author of the attempt of murder of businessman German Gorbuntsov. Busuioc specified that one of the suspects would have wanted to influence Vitalie Proca, who is detained in a penitentiary in Romania, for giving false statements on the attempt of murder of German Gorbuntsov. At that time, the prosecutor abstained from divulging the name of the true beneficiary; yet, the name of the Our Party leader, Renato Usatii, was widely publicized in media as the true beneficiary of these statements.   

The persons detained for the attempt to influence Vitalie Proca, including the person who ordered, run the risk of being sentenced to 15-20 years of imprisonment, depending on the involvement of each person.

(Reporter A. Plitoc, editor L. Alcaza)