What happens after the merger of the file on Vladimir Plahotniuc from “Bank Fraud” to a larger file? Head Anti-Corruption Prosecutor: “Dithering of the file”
Veronica Dragalin, head of the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (PA), believes that the decision taken by Judge Ludmila Beșliu to link the case against former MP Vladimir Plahotniuc to a larger case is wrong and said that the Prosecutor’s Office will appeal to the Court of Appeal. The statements were made during a broadcast on ProTV Chisinau, a week after the conclusion of the Buiucani court.
The chief prosecutor says that the merger of the two cases has no basis.
“His (Vladimir Plahotniuc’s) lawyers have filed an application to link the Plahotniuc case to this much larger case. The prosecutors decided that there is no basis for connecting the case, because the episode that concerned the former bank presidents and former heads of the NBM was in November 2014, but the episode that was referred to the court in relation to Plahotniuc is about another period, other facts.
In the original case we have a list of 88 witnesses, on Plahotniuc’s case we have a list of 51 witnesses. Only five of these two lists contradict each other.
As you can see, we are talking about completely different facts. What is the point of merging these two cases, of hearing 88 witnesses from one episode and 51 from another? It makes no sense, in our view,” Dragalin explained.
The head of the PA said that this was intended to delay the case and that the prosecution would lodge an appeal with the Court of Appeal.
“The Plahotniuc case had 51 witnesses. It was already going to take long enough, but now we have 51 witnesses from one side and another 88 from the other side. So, the file is dragging on. That’s why we think this decision was wrong. We are going to lodge an appeal with the Court of Appeal,” Veronica Dragalin said.
According to a press release from the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office, the Buiucani Court of Chisinau, by a decision of January 22, 2024, admitted the request of Vladimir Plahotniuc’s lawyers to connect the case against him to another case pending in the court since 2021, in which seven people have the status of defendant, being accused in the case generically called “Bank Fraud”.
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