A judge of the Drochia Court was searched and arrested on suspicion of passive corruption. Acting prosecutor general Eduard Harunjen received the Supreme Council of Magistracy’s go-ahead to search the judge’s home, car and office and to arrest him, IPN reports.

According to the Prosecutor General’s Office, the investigation into this case was opened on February 15 following a complaint filed by a Moldovan woman who lives in Italy. This complained about the unprincipled acts of the judge. The collected evidence shows that at the beginning of April 2010, the judge privately consulted the woman about the methods of obtaining ownership rights over property disputed by her partner.

The judge told the woman he will help her recover her home and will make sure that the civil lawsuit is distributed to him for examination. They were to discuss the details later. The judge asked then and received €200 from the women for consultation.

In the next meeting in two days, the judge told the woman that he will examine the case and will adopt a decision in her favor for a sum of €6 200. In April 2014, the woman transferred from Italy the whole asked sum to the judge. This received and collected the money from the bank.

On November 17, 2014, after examining the lawsuit, the judge decided that the woman will own 75.26% of the property’s value, but didn’t pronounce on the lien over the claimed property. Afterward, arguing that the money transmitted earlier wasn’t enough for positively solving the case, he asked for another €1 000 from the woman.

The same day, the Anticorruption Prosecutor’s Office launched special investigation measures and recorded the conversation during which the judge confirmed that he received the asked money for taking actions that were within his professional obligations.

In the evening of March 22, the judge was arrested for 72 hours initially. He is held at the remand prison of the National Anticorruption Center.