Prosecutor General Alexandr Stoianoglo was taken to the remand prison of the Chisinau Police Inspectorate and will be held there for 72 hours. He was escorted out of the Prosecutor General’s Office by officers in balaclavas of the Security and Intelligence Service in the evening of October 5, IPN reports.

Anticorruption prosecutor Victor Furtună said that together with SIS officers, he carried out searches in the office of Alexandr Stoianoglo and his arrest was ordered in a case started on four counts, namely abuse of power, misconduct in office, passive corruption and falsehood. A number of items were seized from the prosecutor general’s office and are to be examined.

The prosecutor stated that more searches will be carried out, but he cannot give details. He didn’t comment on the rumors that Alexandr Stoianoglo’s wife was also arrested. Victor Furtună said that Stoianoglo’s wife is not investigated in the case featuring Alexandr Stoianoglo.

He noted that Alexandr Stoianoglo faces a jail term, but didn’t specify what term.

The Superior Council of Prosecutors in an extraordinary meeting on October 5 decided that prosecutor of the Anticorruption Prosecutor’s Office Victor Furtună will examine the aspects invoked by PAS MP Lilian Carp in his claim about Prosecutor General Alexandr Stoianoglo.

Shortly afterward, Victor Furtună decided to take legal action against the prosecutor general and to suspend him from post for the period of the investigation.

The same day, the prosecutor general was to give a press briefing, but this didn’t take place. At about 6pm, when the briefing was to be given, SIS officers in balaclava helmets, together with prosecutor Victor Furtună, entered the PGO. The searches in the prosecutor general’s office lasted for over three hours.