The verdict in the case of illegal financing of the former Șor party, in which the governor of Gagauzia, Evghenia Gutul, and the former secretary of the party, Svetlana Popan, are accused, will be pronounced on August 5th. The prosecutors are asking for nine years of imprisonment for Gutul and eight years for Popan. Today at the Chisinau Court, Buiucani headquarters, the last examination meeting took place, and in front of the court gathered supporters of the governor, who demanded her release, reports IPN.
Evghenia Gutul pleads not guilty. “I do not admit my guilt. I have not brought a single leu into the country and I have not engaged in anything illegal… I have never broken the law in my life. There is no evidence presented by the prosecutors, because there is no evidence and because I have done nothing”, the governor stated in her final word, before deliberations.
“I am not guilty, I have done nothing wrong. I was officially employed, I was carrying out my duties in good faith. Please do not imprison me”, Svetlana Popan declared in her turn.
In this case, Evghenia Gutul and Svetlana Popan are accused of complicity in the illegal financing of a political formation and a competitor. The incriminated acts concern the period 2019-2022, when Evghenia Gutul was acting as secretary of the Monitoring, Planning, and Control Department of the former Shor party. During that period, she would have been actively involved in the systematic introduction into the Republic of Moldova of substantial amounts of undeclared money, originating from an organized criminal group, particularly from the Russian Federation. The money would have been brought in through air and land routes, and subsequently would have been integrated into the party’s activity.
On another charge, Gutul is accused that, during the period of October-November 2022, she coordinated the activities of several territorial offices of the Shor party in various districts of the country. She is accused of knowingly accepting funding for the party from an organized criminal group, in a total amount of approximately 42.5 million lei.
Currently, the chieftain is under house arrest, a measure applied in the criminal case where she is accused of fraudulent management of electoral funds, illegal financing, and false statements in the election campaign.
