The prosecutor appointed by the Superior Prosecutors’ Council Victor Furtuna informed on Thursday, September 22, about the termination of the prosecution of suspended Prosecutor General Alexandr Stoianoglo, indicted on three counts.

Specifically, the suspended Prosecutor General is accused of committing the following offences:

• abuse of office, “committed in the interest of a criminal organization, manifested by the release from detention of the convicted Veaceslav Platon and illegal waiver of the prosecution”, as a result of which a damage in the amount of more than 869 million lei was allegedly caused to the national public budget (Art. 47, 327 para.(3) of the Criminal Code);
• passive bribery, “manifested by receiving and accepting goods and advantages in any form not due to him from Veaceslav Platon”, in the amount of about 63 million lei (Article 324 of the Criminal Code);
• false declarations, characterised by the intentional non-inclusion in the declaration of assets and personal interests of the fact that his wife, as of 5 January 2021, is one of the beneficial owners of a company registered in Ukraine (Article 352/1(2) of the Criminal Code)

At the same time, the Prosecutor General’s Office (PG) announces that the criminal prosecution is also terminated against two prosecutors of the Prosecutor’s Office for Combating Organized Crime and Special Cases, who are charged with having acted jointly and in concert with the suspended Prosecutor General in the release from detention of the convicted Veaceslav Platon and unlawfully dropping the charges (art. 327 (3) of the Criminal Code).

Once the defence has taken cognisance of the materials in the case file, it will be transmitted to the court for examination on the merits.

“We inform the public that the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office is still prosecuting two other criminal cases involving the suspended Prosecutor General, which concern the abuse of office committed as former Chairman of the National Security, Defence and Public Order Committee of the Moldovan Parliament, as well as his unlawful enrichment,” the PG points out.

The Prosecutor’s Office will provide further information on the progress of the investigations into these criminal cases and the solutions adopted.

At the end of August, the Chisinau Court of Appeal accepted the appeal of anti-corruption prosecutors to extend the judicial control of suspended Prosecutor General Alexandr Stoianoglo for another 60 days, but also accepted the appeal of Stoianoglo’s lawyers.

More precisely, in a comment to ZdG, lawyer Victor Munteanu, one of Stoianoglo’s defenders, told us that the appeal judges accepted both the appeal of the prosecutors and that of the defenders. Thus, the judicial control imposed on the suspended prosecutor general was extended for another 60 days, but at the same time the appeal of the lawyers was admitted, regarding the annulment of the restrictive measures imposed on Stoianoglo, with the exception of two of the measures – the obligation to appear before the criminal prosecution body or the court and not to commit actions likely to prevent the discovery of the truth in the criminal trial.

Alexandr Stoianoglo was arrested on 5 October 2021. He is being investigated for passive bribery, false statements, abuse of office and exceeding official duties. The suspended head of the PG denies all charges and pleads not guilty.