The lawyers for the suspended mayor of Chisinau Dorin Chirtoaca requested to replace the judge and the prosecutor who deal with the case of pay parking spaces in which the mayor is investigated for passive corruption. The February 14 hearing was adjourned in order to examine the application on another day.

Dorin Chirtoaca told the journalists that the prosecutor presented again selectively some of the proofs collected in 2015, even if the court on February 9 requested the prosecutor to provide all the evidence.  When an accused person cannot see all the materials of the case, the right to defense is not ensured and the trial cannot be continued.

According to the suspended mayor, the prosecutor said that the mayor is not involved in the case of bid rigging. “They should complete the investigation into bid rigging first and see who and what role played there so that all those involved stand trial. They should not bring persons investigated in that case here as witnesses. The accomplices cannot be witnesses, especially because the prosecutor said that I wasn’t involved in that matter,” stated Dorin Chirtoaca.

On the other hand, prosecutor Dumitru Robu said the requests to replace the prosecutor and the judge are an abusive intention by the defense and the culprit to preclude the trial as they could not question the ex-head of the Transport Division Igor Gamretski today. The given requests weren’t based on grounds stipulated in the penal procedure legislation.

Dorin Chirtoaca was charged with passive corruption and acceptance of undue gains for hastening particular activities in the pay parking lots case. He was arrested last May and placed under house arrest. Now he is under judicial control.