Moldovan lawyer sentenced to three years of imprisonment for influence peddling

Chisinau, 6 February /MOLDPRES/ - A lawyer has been sentenced to three years of imprisonment for influence peddling. He claimed and received money, in order to influence public persons from the Cimislia Prosecutor’s Office and Cimislia Court, so as to get a positive solution in a file.  

According to the Anticorruption Prosecutor’s Office, on the period February 2014 – March 2015, the lawyer claimed and received 10,000 euros, to be able to influence public people of the Cimislia Prosecutor’s Office and Cimislia Court, in order to get a positive solution in a criminal file. In March 2015, the lawyer received the money and handed an alleged contract on legal assistance to the client.       

Under a sentence of the Centru Court of Chisinau from September 2016, the lawyer was discharged, for reasons that his deeds did not meet the elements of the offences incriminated. The prosecutor appealed the decision. As a result, according to the decision by the Criminal College of the Balti Court of Appeal from November 2018, the prosecutor’s appeal was admitted and the lawyer was recognized as guilty of the committing of the offence, with a punishment of 4 years of imprisonment established against him. Under the Article 90 of the Criminal Code, the enforcement of the punishment with imprisonment was suspended on condition for a two-year probation period. Prosecutors made an appeal and asked for the partial annulment of the appeal court’s ruling. Thus, under a decision by the Supreme Court of Justice from 2 February 2023, the lawyer was sentenced to three years of imprisonment, with the serving of the punishment in a semi-closed penitentiary.