The former President of Moldova, socialist Igor Dodon, suspected of passive bribery, acceptance of political party financing by a criminal organisation, treason and illicit enrichment, remains under house arrest for another 30 days. A decision in this regard was taken on Tuesday, 21 June, by the magistrates of the Ciocana Court of Chișinău.

According to Dodon, prosecutors presented three arguments for the decision to extend the preventive measure of house arrest for another 30 days: new witnesses in the case, the fact that Igor Dodon lives with his wife, Galina Dodon, who is also a defendant in the case of illicit enrichment, as well as discussions with the press and posts on social media.

“As expected (…), the judges made a decision to extend the house arrest for 30 days. I regret that the prosecutors took the decision to continue to put pressure on my family, for example my brother-in-law. (…) We will appeal the decision to the Court of Appeal. (…) Given that pressure is being put on judges, I think this was to be expected,” said former Moldovan President Igor Dodon.

Also, the magistrates of the Chișinău Ciocana court extended for another 20 days the solitary confinement of Igor Dodon’s brother-in-law, Petru Merineanu, who on 24 May tried to swallow a receipt allegedly confirming real estate transactions worth more than €700,000.

Prosecutors Petru Iarmaliuc and Eugenia Zubco said they might appeal the decision of the Chișinău Ciocana court to remand Petru Merineanu in custody for 20 days.

On Friday 17 June, Igor Dodon went to the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office, where he was handed the application for the extension of the preventive measure in the form of house arrest.

A day earlier, on 16 June, Galina Dodon, the wife of the former Moldovan President, appeared before the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office for a hearing in the case known as “Kuliok”. According to the decision of the anti-corruption prosecutors, Galina Dodon has been admitted as an accomplice in the illicit enrichment case against her husband Igor Dodon and is banned from leaving the country for 60 days.

Igor Dodon is currently under house arrest. He was detained on 24 May after anti-corruption prosecutors carried out ten raids for more than ten hours at several locations owned by Dodon and his relatives.

The searches took place in Sadova, at Igor Dodon’s parental home and house in Chisinau, at the Sadova “Sadovo” leisure resort, at Molovata on the banks of the Dniester River, where Dodon’s family has invested in another resort, at the headquarters of the foundations of the former socialist president of Moldova, including the headquarters of the Moldovan-Russian Business Union, where Dodon is president. 

During the raids, prosecutors seized goods and money worth tens of millions of lei, and more than 600 thousand lei, 17 thousand euros and 1000 dollars were found in one of the locations searched.  

Prosecutors also found a receipt showing that Igor Dodon’s wife had paid 25 thousand euros, cash, in August 2021 as a deposit for kitchen equipment. Ziarul de Gardă newspaper identified the person who signed this receipt. She provided us with details of the transaction. The trail leads to the ex-president’s brother-in-law, detained by prosecutors while swallowing a receipt, and to an all-inclusive resort on the Nistru River, purchased last summer.