Former minister of economy Valeriu Lazăr expressed his surprise at the anticorruption prosecutors’ announcement concerning the sending to court of the case started over alleged illegalities committed when leasing the Chisinau International Airport. According to him, this announcement strengthened his conviction that the goal was to attract public support rather that to get at the truth, IPN reports.

Valeriu Lazăr noted that the prosecutors didn’t clarify all the goals and methods of the Airport lease and didn’t remove the basic flaws from the case file. His lawyers warned the state prosecutors and their superiors about this as there is an imminent risk that the whole process of discovering the trust will be distorted. The case sent to court is incomplete as not all the challenges filed by the defense were examined.

According to him, the Chisinau Appeals Court passed a final and executory judgment by which it ordered to terminate the lease of the Airport because the legal contract obligations weren’t fulfilled. It was this way presumed that this contract is perfectly valid and resulted from a non-vitiated decision-making process.

“I hope these important aspects will be clarified by a correct, objective and impartial court and we are ready to fully contribute to the process, to present conclusive and pertinent evidence, including the proofs that were presented to prosecutors at the investigation stage but were ignored by these, so that I can prove my innocence,” stated Valeriu Lazăr, noting he will demand that the hearings should be public.

The Anticorruption Prosecutor’s Office on Tuesday announced that prosecutors sent to court another segment of the investigation into the lease of the Chisinau International Airport. Eight former and current officials have been indicted in the case, including former prime minister Iurie Leancă, ex-minister of economy Valeriu Lazăr, and MP Petru Jardan, formerly acting director of the Airport. The damage caused to the state reportedly exceeds 392 million lei.