Hearing the so-called “Ambulances dossier”, in which the former mayor of Chisinau and the leader of the largest opposition party the Moldova Noastra Alliance, Serafim Urecheanu, is suspected of power abuse, has been adjourned again today, because prosecutor Alexandru Bernaz fell sick, Info-Prim Neo reports.
The chairman of the jury, Constantin Urâtu, told the sitting of Monday, 7 April, he had been informed earlier by Bernaz he was sick and unable to attend the session.
Replying, counselor Vasile Râhlea has said he expected the session to be adjourned because of a reason invoked by the prosecutor, yet he didn’t know the latter one would suddenly fall ill.
Asked by Serafim Urecheanu why the representative of the City Hall has not been present, as he supported the accusation earlier, the judge has said the City Hall sent a letter maintaining that procuring the ambulances was a necessity and did not consider Urecheanu committed any illegality.
Asked by Info-Prim Neo, Urecheanu has stated he is made to participate in court session as many as 4 years to demonstrate that buying those 40 ambulances for the Emergency Hospital was a stringent need. He is sure the trial will be tergiversated because the prosecutors realize the court will establish he is not guilty.
According to the Moldova Noastra leader, those 40 Volkswagen ambulances were bought through single money transfer, not through leasing to save 4 million lei from the municipal budget. To mend the technical problems of the cars bought by the City Hall in 1998, they decided to outfit the new cars with special equipment. It was installed by other company, which also installed four-wheel drive systems on 10 cars, which cost 4 million lei more.
The “ambulance case” continues to be heard on the prosecutor’s insistence. According to the defense, the Centru district Court ignored the decision of May 17, 2006, issued by the Supreme Court of Justice, which confirmed the severe violation of legal procedures by investigators and annulled all the documents on which the accusation was based, demanding to end searching Serafim Urecheanu. The defense considers that ignoring the decision of Moldova’s Supreme Court is a major abuse of human rights and the state of law, admitted by the prosecutor’s office and the inferior court. On this reason, on December 12, 2006, they notified the European Court of Human Rights.
The next session will be held on Good Friday, April 25, at 10.30.
