44 years in jail for killing Voronin’s bodyguard
Two young men got by 22 years for murdering the bodyguard of businessman Oleg Voronin, the son of former President Vladimir Voronin, Info-Prim Neo reports. The decision was passed by the Cahul Court of Appeals. The killed man, Ghenadie Scripcaru, headed SRL Biotex-Com, which rented 700 hectares of the forests Tiganca and Rotunda for a period of 49 years.
According to prosecutor Leonid Turculet, the convicted young men - Roman Ivanov and Dumitru Axenti – are seemingly Romanies. The crime was committed on March 31, 2008 in Ceadir-Lunga town. Ghenadie Scripcaru was near a bar together with two friends of his. The victim remained to nap in the car, while his friends went to the bar. The convicts saw the driver sleeping and decided to take his car. They went to the house of one of them, took knives, returned and stabbed Ghenadie Scripcaru to death.
The attackers aged 25 and 29 stole the Audi A6 car and hid it at the relatives of one of them. They were identified soon afterward and accepted their blame, but later one of them said he was not at the place of the crime. According to him, his friend called him and showed him the car to the value of €50,000, saying somebody returned a debt by giving him it. When the two were arrested, it was rumored that the young men admitted guilt after they were tortured by the police. Prosecutor Leonid Turculet denied this information.
The first court sentenced the two to 25 years in jail each for intentional murder and robbery. The decision was appealed to the Court of Appeals, which decreased the sentence to 22 years. They were also obliged to pay damages of 70,000 lei to the killed man’s wife.