Magistrates of the Chișinău Court of Appeals, Ciocana headquarters, have issued an arrest warrant in absentia for 30 days in the name of the former leader of the Democratic Party of Moldova (PDM) Vladimir Plahotniuc in the “Metalferos” criminal case. The information was confirmed to Ziarul de Gardă by prosecutor Mariana Cherpec, spokeswoman of the Prosecutor General’s Office (PG).

The prosecutors’ request for applying preventive arrest in absentia against Plahotniuc for a term of 30 days, was registered on November 5, 2021, but only on July 5, 2022, magistrates issued an arrest warrant for the former PDM leader.

“(…) It was not possible to examine the case because his lawyer submitted requests for recusal to the judges, then several requests for transferring the case to other courts, which were examined by the Supreme Court of Justice,” Cherpec told ZdG.

In the “Metalferos” case, Plahotniuc is charged on three counts – creation and management of a criminal organisation, fraud on a particularly large scale and money laundering.

Vladimir Plahotniuc left Moldova in June 2019 after PDM handed over the government to a coalition formed by the ACUM Bloc and PSRM, which broke up in November 2019. In March 2020, the US Embassy in Chisinau confirmed that Plahotniuc is on US soil.

The Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (PA) requested Plahotniuc’s extradition in June 2020, when the former Democratic leader was located in the US, and in September 2020, when he was identified in Turkey, respectively, but no response to these requests from either country has reached the Chisinau authorities. On 1 October 2021, the PA submitted a repeated request to the Interpol National Central Bureau in Moldova asking the General Secretariat to issue an international wanted persons notice for Plahotniuc.

In June 2022, the Chișinău Parliament approved in the first reading a draft law which stipulates that criminal cases could be prosecuted in the absence of the person concerned if they evade prosecution or trial, which could be the case for Shor and Plahotniuc.

In July 2020, ZdG published an investigation revealing that Plahotniuc had signatory rights or was a beneficiary of at least three companies that directly or indirectly benefited tens of millions of dollars from contracts with Metalferos, a joint-stock company in which the state has a majority stake. The money went into the accounts of Plahotniuc’s affiliated companies, including when he was in public office. Still, neither the money nor the companies were listed in the former politician’s declarations of assets and interests.

Over the past 20 years, Metalferos has repeatedly been the target of accusations of corruption, being affiliated with former PDM leader Vladimir Plahotniuc and people in his entourage. ZdG has obtained and analysed dozens of documents confirming multiple allegations that have accompanied Metalferos’ activities over the past decade. Most of these issues are also being investigated by prosecutors in a criminal case opened in December 2019, but the case has no finality.