Former head of Anticorruption Prosecutor's Office investigated in new case

Chisinau, 12 February /MOLDPRES/- Former head of the Anticorruption Prosecutor's Office (PA) Viorel Morari is being investigated in a new case initiated for illicit enrichment, and remains under arrest. Prosecutor General Alexandr Stoianoglo made the statement today.

Prosecutor General's Office completed on 7 Friday the criminal prosecution and sent to court the criminal case for accusing the former head of the Anticorruption Prosecutor's Office of "abuse of office", "false in public documents" and "interference in criminal prosecution".

"Today, the prosecutors will ask for extension of the arrest of the former PA head, and we announce about his investigation and his family, in a new case for illicit enrichment," said Stoianoglo.

The Prosecutor General noted that the former PA head is involved in other cases, which are currently being worked by the law enforcers.

Basis for initiating the case served the journalistic materials, verified and confirmed in the criminal case by the authorized state institutions, reporting on disproportionate nature of the incomes declared by the ex-chief prosecutor of the PA in relation to the real material situation of the family members.

The ex-head is suspected that in December 2016, he personally received from the former PDM leader Vladimir Plahotniuc a complaint, dated December 26, 2016, by which the PD leader requested that Veaceslav Platon be held criminally liable for a slanderous complaint, filed with DIICOT Romania.

Plahotniuc's complaint was brought to the Anticorruption Prosecutor's Office even by the head of the prosecutor's office, who, however, forgot about the denunciation until March 2017. Later, to hide his negligence in relation to the functional responsibilities, knowing with certainty that the complaint does not comply with legal requirements, asked a subordinate to "fix the mistake" by registering the complaint with December 28, 2016 and ordered, through a resolution, as before, examining Plahotniuc's complaint by a subordinate prosecutor.

Thus, as a result of these actions, all the complaints and statements filed before and after by Veaceslav Platon against Plahotniuc were classified by the PA as false and slanderous, without intervening with checks on the facts reported repeatedly by him. 

Prosecutors also found that although in autumn 2016 the PA had information on the involvement of Vladimir Plahotniuc in "the theft of the billion", he was never heard, being left to leave the country unhindered in summer 2019. Under these conditions, the investigation was put into great difficulty to achieve effective investigation.