Elizaveta Istrati and her son Aurel, farmers from Susleni village of Orhei district, on October 10 made an appeal to the embassies working in Moldova to offer them political asylum, saying they are persecuted by the corrupt law enforcement bodies of Moldova.
In a news conference at IPN, Elizaveta Istrati said that her son Aurel rented farmland that was let to lie fallow in Rezina district and rehabilitated it with his own money. In 2013, the man intended to purchase new agricultural machinery after he will sell the corn, wheat and sunflower of the new harvest. The man from whom he rented machinery earlier, Oleg Gonta, offered to lend him money to purchase machines immediately, so as not to wait for the harvest. Considering him an honest-minded man, the Istrati family borrowed from him by 2 million lei two times. After taking the second loan, they signed a contract stipulating that they will return the money in 30 days and notarized it. Oleg Gonta assured them that it is only a formality and the earlier verbal agreement remained in force so that they were to pay back the money after selling the harvest.
With this money, the Istrati family purchased tractors and other equipment, also from the firms owned by Oleg Gonta, through the agency of the 2KR program, paying 30% of its value. The other 70% was covered by the program so that Oleg Gonta received the full cost. According to Elizaveta Istrati, the machinery was delivered to them with delay, while Oleg Gonta sued them for swindle. Afterward, there were started criminal cases over non-payment of debts and insolvency.
According to Aurel Istrati, on December 24, 2013, the Orhei court ordered sequestrating the family’s property. Marcu Gritcu was named acting administrator. He started to sell the harvest and other property and then compiled an inventory, indicating that the company of Aurel Istrati and the farm of Elizaveta Istrati cannot pay the debts and should be liquidated. Aurel Istrati said he was arrested for 20 days so as not to hamper these acts.
“This business of theirs is well-planned. We convinced ourselves that they have their persons in courts, the police and the prosecutor’s office and we are sent from court to court,” said Elizaveta Istrati. According to her, it happened that they were summoned to several courts the same day and didn’t always manage to be present everywhere. Many decisions were taken in their absence. Some of their complaints to the prosecutor’s office and the police in Orhei were rejected, while those submitted to the central institutions were redirected back to the local ones.
Aurel Istrati presented a video showing how a car sent by Marcu Gritcu tears apart the gate of his mother’s home with a chain. Elizaveta Istrati said the workers were driven away from the fields with guns, while she was ill-treated when she tried to hamper the confiscation of property from her house.
“We suffered and continue to suffer. We were followed and mistreated, but want to work not to beg. I thus make a public appeal to all the embassies working in Chisinau to grant us political asylum in any state. We are ready to leave Moldova to farm elsewhere and escape prosecution. We are ready to provide explanations to any ambassador who will show interest,” said Elizaveta Istrati.
The case concerning the insolvency of the farmstead of the Istrati family will be examined by the Supreme Court of Justice on October 29, 2014.
