Lawyer Vitalie Taulean accuses first deputy prosecutor general Andrei Pantea of covering the illegal actions of employees of the Ministry of the Interior’s General Operative Services Division and of prosecutors who stage robberies and then ask for money from the persons attracted into the traps. In a news conference at IPN, Vitalie Taulean presented the case of four men who risk being jailed after being involved in such a scheme.
The lawyer said that in the summer of 2012, the four men were recruited by a person to perform construction works in Cricova town. When they arrived at the destination, they were lured into a dwelling, where balaclavas and handcuffs were put on them. Afterward, employees of the General Operative Services Division staged their arrest for committing a ‘robbery’.
Vitalie Taulean is convinced that this way the Division’s employee want to show that there are criminal groups in Moldova and they efficiently fight them. They also want to obtain money from the accused persons. The National Anticorruption Center has evidence that another three crimes were committed according to the above-mentioned scenario, but Andrei Pantea prevents the Center from making these proofs public.
According to Taulean, the case of the four men contains multiple mistakes and violations. The lawyers are not allowed to see the proceedings of the hearings that they could not attend for health reasons. The examination of the case is hastened groundlessly by the court.
Another layer of the defense Dumitru Sliusarenko told the journalists that the court refused to accept him as the representative of the defense for the reason that the case must be examined faster. “It is for the firs time that I see something like this. It seems that the court knows that these men are innocent, but does everything possible to convict them,” he stated, adding that no person is protected from such traps.
The lawyers said an MP is also involved in this case. His car was seen near the building of the court every time hearings in this case were held.