Moldovan Prosecutor General's Office says Veaceslav Platon not to be returned to Ukraine, not to be extradited to Russia

Chisinau, 22 January /MOLDPRES/ - The Prosecutor General’s Office (PG) of Moldova has informed the authorities of Ukraine and Russia about impossibility to meet the demand of returning defendant Veaceslav Platon to Ukraine and, respectively, to extradite him to Russia.  

The decision was taken after PG had considered petitions received from the Prosecutor General’s Offices of the two countries.   

„Therefore, taking into account that defendant Platon has the citizenship of Moldova and serves his criminal punishment on the cause on which he was convicted and, at the same time, he is concerned also in other files, on which the criminal prosecution is underway and in his absence, the reasonable term of the investigations might be infringed and as a result, the interests of the injured parties would be harmed, the Prosecutor General’s Office cannot fulfill the petitions of the colleagues from Ukraine and Russia, both being turned down,” reads a press release of PG, made public today.   

Earlier, in a petition from 10 December 2019, the general prosecutor of Ukraine demanded the return of Veaceslav Platon to Ukraine for the carrying out of the legal procedures as to the adoption of a final decision on Moldova’s demand to extradite him. On 11 December 2019, the Prosecutor General’s Office of Russia sent a petition, thereby demanding the extraditing of Platon, in order to call him to account for a string of serious offences committed in Russia.     

Presently, the defendant serves his term in the Penitentiary No 13, after being convicted for swindle, money laundering and passive corruption. Also, Platon continues to be criminally prosecuted on other counts, such as: fiscal evasion, causing material damages through fraud or abuse of trust, embezzlement of other people’s wealth.