The Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (PA) announces on Friday, September 2, that prosecutors have submitted to the investigating judge the request for the extension of the preventive measure “preventive arrest” for another 30 days for the deputy of the “ȘOR” political party, Marina Tauber, targeted in two criminal cases initiated on the fact of “knowingly accepting the party’s financing from an organized criminal group” and falsifying the report on the party’s financial management.

Thus, according to the PA, the date of the hearing of the prosecutors’ application is to be set by the court.

On Friday, September 2, three people were detained for 72 hours by the National Anti-Corruption Centre (CNA) following searches carried out in the criminal case on the illegal financing of the “Sor” political party. The raids included a raid on a president of a regional territorial organisation of the party. The PA announced that the detainees are charged with complicity in the falsification of reports on the party’s financial management and acceptance of party funding from an “organised criminal group”.

On 1 August, the magistrates of the Chisinau Court of Appeal upheld the decision of the first instance and rejected the appeal lodged by the MP’s lawyers, who asked for the preventive measure to be annulled. Thus, Marina Tauber remained in remand custody in Prison No. 13.

Marina Tauber, who is the subject of two criminal cases brought on the grounds of “knowingly accepting party funding from an organised criminal group”, was stripped of her parliamentary immunity on 21 July, after Parliament approved the two requests by the acting Prosecutor General Dumitru Robu.

Tauber described the lifting of parliamentary immunity as a “political decision that has already been taken”. The party’s vice-president declared herself innocent and said she feared nothing, “neither arrests nor searches”.

On 21 July, CNA and Intelligence and Security Service (SIS) officers, together with anti-corruption prosecutors, raided several locations across the country as part of a file launched on the illegal financing of the “ȘOR” political party.

According to the evidence in the file, it was found that the party had knowingly accepted money of dubious origin from a “criminal group”, which was used for party purposes, such as fees for artists, salaries for members and the organisation of protests. According to the CNA, the money of the “criminal group” arrived in Moldova in the form of transfers and conversions, including in cryptocurrency, and various financing channels such as Dubai, Vienna and Monaco were used to disguise the origin of the funds.