Former head of state Igor Dodon’s case, which will investigate the episode filmed in June 2019, when he received a black bag from Vladimir Plahotniuc, has reached the court, and the first hearing took place on Monday, October 17, at the Supreme Court of Justice. Dodon is defended by three lawyers, and the prosecution is being handled by two prosecutors.

The first hearing in the so-called “kuliok” or “black bag” case, in which the former president of Moldova is accused of demanding almost $1 million from Vladimir Plahotniuc and Sergei Yaralov to negotiate with the Russian Federation, lasted more than eight hours, during which Igor Dodon’s lawyers asked for the prosecutors and the president of the panel of judges examining the criminal case to be recused. Both requests, which prosecutors describe as attempts to delay the trial, were rejected.

While Igor Dodon tried to be friendly with journalists and even asked them at one point if it was “warmer outside”, one of his lawyers came up with the line “To the toilet, don’t you want to go with us?”. ZdG attended the first court hearing in the former head of state’s case and brings you details of what happened.

Defendant: Igor Dodon.
Defenders: Ion Vîzdoagă, Petru Balan and Nicolae Posturusu.
Accusers: Petru Iarmaliuc and Vitalie Codreanu.
Trial panel: Ghenadie Plămădeală, Anatolie Țurcan and Vladimir Timofti, as president of the panel.

Dodon promises “over 150” witnesses on his side

Igor Dodon appeared at the Supreme Court of Justice (CSJ) accompanied by two bodyguards. One of them will be almost always present in the courtroom. The other will stand at the door of the courtroom. Before the start of the court session, he asked the journalists if they wanted to make statements and suggested they do so in the hallway. There, the former head of state spoke about the case which, in his view, is based on “two aspects”, one being a video recording “orchestrated” by Plahotniuc and described by him as illegal, and the other being the prosecution’s witnesses, whom he describes as pseudo-witnesses, and the “over 150” witnesses expected by the defence.

Igor Dodon: “Rights and obligations are clear, but the accusation is not clear”

The first trial of Moldova’s first head of state ever tried for an alleged crime committed while in office begins. After the protocolary formalities for the presentation of the accused, the defence and the prosecution had been completed and Igor Dodon said that “the rights and obligations are clear, but the indictment is not clear”, his lawyers asked for clarity on the status of the court clerk Dorin Cazacu. The magistrates explained that the assistants were currently also acting as court clerks, and presented documents to that effect. The lawyers accept the arguments and take the next step – they ask for the recusal of anti-corruption prosecutors Petru Iarmaliuc and Vitalie Codreanu, on the grounds that “the case should be handled by prosecutors from the General Prosecutor’s Office”. Referring to Iarmaliuc, Dodon’s defenders argued that the prosecutor works less than 4 years in the system, is young and inexperienced and that he was a former member of the Liberal Reformatory Party (PLR).

Socialists jump to Dodon’s defence

While the lawyers are explaining the reasons for the recusal request and Igor Dodon is making notes on an A4 sheet, from outside, around 200 people, including socialist MPs, are making their presence heard in front of the CSJ to support Dodon. “We want fair justice” and “нет беспределу” (no lawlessness – ed.), they say from outside.

A few minutes later, PSRM deputy Vasile Bolea appears in the courtroom, and a few minutes later, Dodon’s supporters stop chanting.

The magistrates then withdrew for deliberations to decide on the request to recuse the two prosecutors, during which the former president did not miss the opportunity to come out in front of his supporters and give a speech, in which he blamed the current government and, in particular, President Maia Sandu, for the state of things in the country. Dodon asked his supporters if they were cold and urged them to go home. “It is not obligatory for all of you to stay,” he said. Later, he also met with a group of “protesters” from Orhei of the Shor Party. They applauded him, took pictures with him and wished him good health.

The former president also mentioned the cold during the first break when his defenders were formulating the request for the prosecutors’ recusal. “Is it warmer outside?” he asked the journalists, and shortly afterwards he blew twice into his palms.

First defence motion – rejected

The judges emerge from the deliberation chamber, and the president of the trial chamber Vladimir Timofti begins to pronounce the conclusion taken on the prosecutors’ motion for recusal. Igor Dodon is absent from the courtroom, but appears within moments. The first defence motion – rejected.

Dodon’s lawyer to the press: “Do you want to go to the toilet with us?”

A 5-minute break follows, during which Igor Dodon consults with his lawyers. He says something in his ear to his defender Nicolae Posturusu, and both start walking out of the courtroom. “Don’t you want to come with us to the toilet”, Posturusu addressed the journalists and left the courtroom.

Meanwhile, socialist MP Alla Darovannaia, former MP Marina Radvan and several young people appeared in the room. The 5-minute break has elapsed, so the lawyers come up with the next recusal request – they want Vladimir Timofti removed from the panel, as they are unhappy with the way the case file was distributed and the panel of judges created.

Prosecutors accuse of trying to delay the examination of the case

After a break of about 3 hours, during which a new panel of judges was formed to examine Timofti’s request for recusal, the trial resumes.

The new panel includes judges Ion Guzun, Ghenadie Plămădeală and Anatolie Țurcan as president. Țurcan asks the parties to speak briefly. While the parties make their arguments, Igor Dodon continues to take notes, as he did for most of the hearing.

“I find it suspicious that only one magistrate is being asked to recuse himself” and “this is a way of delaying the examination of the case” are some of the lines said by prosecutor Petru Iarmaliuc. Dodon’s lawyers tried to reply to what Iarmaliuc said, but magistrate Turcan intervened with: “Can there be more replies here? You’ve repeated yourself 100 times” and quickly retreats, accompanied by the other two judges, to the deliberation chamber.

As soon as the magistrates disappeared from the courtroom, lawyer Nicolae Posturusu approached the ZdG reporter and asked: “Why don’t you say that Ion Guzun is Andrei Spînu’s uncle? It was more interesting”.

The decision of the three judges of the CSJ on the request to recuse Judge Vladimir Timofti from examining Igor Dodon’s case was not long in coming. The verdict – the application is rejected as unfounded. Thus, the panel of judges Ghenadie Plămădeală, Anatolie Țurcan and Vladimir Timofti will continue examining the case in which Igor Dodon is accused of passive corruption and illegal financing of a political party.

Also on Monday, the same panel of judges decided to extend the former president’s house arrest for another 30 days. While the prosecutor argued the need to extend the arrest on the grounds that there were “risks of committing new crimes”, lawyer Petru Balan wondered “is this really the way to talk about a former president of a country? Should we really talk like about a common criminal?”.

After more than eight hours, the first hearing ended without the parties discussing the charges in the case. As the examination of the requests for recusal and extension of the house arrest warrant ended after 5pm, the parties agreed to continue examining the case on Monday 24 October at 2pm.

Igor Dodon is the first head of state to be tried for a crime committed while in office. For this reason, the case has been referred directly to the CJ, which by law is competent to try criminal cases involving offences committed by a head of state at first instance.

The criminal prosecution in the case generically called “kuliok” was resumed on 18 May 2022, one day after the Chisinau CA overturned the entire decision of the Chisinau Court, Ciocana sector, on maintaining the order of non-prosecution against the former President of Moldova, issued earlier. The case is based on a video footage of a meeting between Igor Dodon, Vladimir Plahotniuc and Serghei Iaralov in June 2019, in which the PDM leader is seen giving Dodon a black bag in which it was speculated there was money. In that recording, Igor Dodon tells Plahotniuc not to “walk around with his ass” and to pass the bag to Cornel (supposedly Corneliu Forks, ed.), because he was going to pay some salaries. Plahotniuc then told Iaralov to give the money to Costea (supposedly Constantin Botnari, editor’s note) to pass on to Cornel. The video footage, published by former MP Iurie Renita, is a continuation of the video recording of the meeting of the three in June 2019, when Dodon said he receives monthly money from the Russian Federation to finance the PSRM. Later, Dodon publicly stated that he had played a role in those discussions, with the aim of ousting Plahotniuc from government.