Employees of the Ministry of the Interior carried out searches at the home of the sister of the Liberal Party’s leader Mihai Ghimpu, who is the mother of Mayor General of Chisinau Dorin Chirtoaca, the party’s administration announced in a news conference. They accused the Liberal Democratic Party (PLDM) and its leader Vlad Filat of being behind these searches, IPN reports.

Mihai Ghimpu said the searches were performed because the firm run by the Chirtoaca family is suspected of tax evasion. The firm would have concluded a transaction with another firm that had relations with phantom companies. The criminal case was started on April 3, but searches are carried out only now.

“The Ministry of the Interior is managed by the PLDM. The Prosecutor’s Office is controlled by Plahotniuc. They decided to intimidate the PL in this election campaign. The technologies are old, dating from the Soviet period. Only the people are new. This is a political act,” stated Mihai Ghimpu.

In a communiqué, the Prosecutor General’s Office says the criminal case over tax evasion is dealt with by the Chisinau Police Division. Being obliged by the procedural rules, prosecutors of the Chisinau Prosecutor’s Office granted the request of the investigation body of the Ministry of the Interior and asked the court to issue an authorization for the search.

Following the statements made by representatives of the PL, Prosecutor General Corneliu Gurin ordered examining this case to see if the measures were taken in accordance with the law.