General Prosecutor's Office says - attempt made to delay criminal prosecution on Vladimir Plahotniuc

Chisinau, Nov. 16 /MOLDPRES/- The General Prosecutor's Office issued today a statement saying "there are tendencies to postpone the examination of the request on the completion of the criminal investigation in the absence of the accused Vladimir Plahotniuc in the bank fraud case".

On 22 August the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office submitted a request to the judge of the Chisinau District Court, through which he requested the agreement to complete the criminal investigation, in the absence of the accused Vladimir Plahotniuc. This case was referred to the Constitutional Court through a request from lawyers, regarding the lifting of the exception of unconstitutionality of the new provisions recently introduced in the Code of Criminal Procedure, which allow the criminal prosecution to be completed in the absence of the accused, and on September 29, 2022 the Court declared inadmissible nominated notification.

"Consequently, six court hearings took place, where the defense submitted new requests to lift the exception of unconstitutionality, requests to challenge, requests to relocate the case, or requests to postpone the court hearings, and the prosecutors constantly pleaded for the rejection of the respective requests. The last court session was postponed due to the failure of the lawyer to appear, thus, the appointment of an ex officio lawyer was requested, to be able to continue the examination of the approach in the meeting set for November 17th", the statement issued by the General Prosecutor's Office also says.