Chisinau mayor suspended from office

Chisinau, 28 July /MOLDPRES/ - Chisinau mayor Dorin Chirtoaca has been suspended from office till the issuance of a final sentence. Magistrates of the  Buiucani district court of Chisinau took a decision to this effect today.  

Following the court session, the case prosecutor, Victoria Furtuna, said that the court’s ruling was legal. “The temporary suspension from office is necessary, as more witnesses are to be heard, who are in close connection with the capital’s mayor; and so there is the risk that the persons be influenced, especially as the intimidation of a witness has been earlier attempted,” the prosecutor said.  

For her part, the lawyer of the mayor said the sentence was illegal. “This subject was to be considered by the Constitutional Court, as Mr. Chirtoaca was holding a position to which he was elected by citizens. We will appeal the today’s ruling,” the lawyer stressed.   

Attending the court session, the Chisinau mayor said that he was expecting such a decision. “I was prepared. Nevertheless, even if I were not dismissed from office, I would not have gone to work till the pronouncing of a final decision, so that this ruling was not even needed. The witness about whom the prosecutor said that he would have been influenced is Igor Gamretchi; yet, this is not true,” Chirtoaca said.   

The Chisinau mayor in late last May was detained by anticorruption prosecutors and officers of the National Anticorruption Centre, being suspected of influence peddling in the file on paid parkings.  

(Reporter A. Ciobanu, editor L. Alcaza)