Former sportsman Ion Șoltoianu, who is accused of blackmail, was released from custody based on a decision taken by the Buiucani Court of Chisinau City after examining the prosecutor’s request to change the preventive measure against the defendant.

Contacted by IPN for details, Emil Gaitur, spokesman for the Prosecutor’s Office for Organized Crime and Special Cases, said the state prosecutor argued that the constitutional arrest period of 12 months expired. Therefore, the court ordered a judicial release for the defendant, whose case has been pending for six months.

Earlier, Ion Șoltoianu was sentenced to 14 years in prison for murder, blackmail and illegal possession of weapons. The Moldovan kickboxer was accused of killing policeman Ion Stratulat in September 2011 at a terrace in central Chisinau. Șoltoianu served eight years in jail and was set free after amendments to the Criminal Procedure Code entered into force on January 1, 2019. Under the amendments, persons held for at least ten days in inhuman or degrading conditions can ask for a reduction in the jail term or for monetary compensation. In early April 2023, the former athlete was again arrested, this time for allegedly blackmailing a former cellmate into giving him over 5 million lei. The indictment was sent to court last October and Șoltoianu was charged on three counts.

The accused was also investigated in case of physical assault on a man in March 2022.