While the Democratic Party was in power, those who refused to take sides with the Democrats were imprisoned based on criminal cases fabricated by the ‘servants’ of Vlad Plahotniuc, the then leader of the PDM. The criminal cases were started with the aim of annihilating the political and economic opponents, Valeriu Cucu, who presented himself as a former political prisoner, stated in a news conference at IPN.

Valeriu Cucu said that he is known as the person who had been in custody over criminal cases started by order during the longest period of time, he being a member of the Party “Dignity and Truth Platform”. Pressure was exerted on the party’s activists so as to find more persons who would testify against the PPPDA and in support of the PDM. In the summer of 2016, representatives of the PDM tried to persuade activists to join the Democratic Party for sums of €3,000. In the campaign prior to the presidential elections, he was told to give a news conference and make statements against Andrei Năstase, the leader of the PPPDA, but he refused. At the end of March 2017, he was arrested and held in inhuman conditions in Penitentiary No.13.

According to Valeriu Cucu, one of the about ten cases started against him, which is now pending at the Buiucani Court, was fabricated by prosecutor Lilian Bacalym. After staying in jail for a year on charges of smuggling, which were recently dropped, he left jail, but was immediately arrested again in a fabricated case of tax evasion. Even if the law provides that the economic cases are started based on an ascertaining document, such a document appeared in half a year, but in the period he was in remand detention.

The man was also said that after he was jailed, his family was blackmailed into giving €200,000 for him to be released. It was a real disaster. It’s good that things started to improve, but those who committed these crimes should be held accountable.

Through videoconferencing, Iurie Balaur, ex-director of a building company, said that everyone remembers the disorders witnessed during the state capture. He was also in litigation and now calls on the prosecutor general to ensure fair justice. He asked that the case featuring him should be reviewed.

The conference was organized by the Association “Right to Justice”.