The mayor of Basarabeasca town Valentin Cimpoeș said he is the victim of pressure that started to be exerted on him in 2014 and intensified after the local elections of 2015. At the end of 2016, he was even held in jail for a month. He continues to be investigated. No court hearing was held during four years and no court decision was thus taken.

In a news conference at IPN, organized by the Association “Right to Justice”, Valentin Cimpoeș related that in 2014, he served as an independent district councilor in Basarabeasca. He ran his own car service station. After the local elections of 2015, he became a mayor. His challenger in the runoff was the Party of Socialists’ candidate. “The enormous pressure started immediately after I took up my duties. I thought the Socialists represented the left, while I represented then Our Party and I believed we will cooperate. But it wasn’t meant to be,” stated the mayor.

In 2016, he heard that he will be arrested, but he could not understand for what reasons, also because the carried out inspections didn’t reveal administrative violations. That year he was advised to leave Our Party, but he didn’t do it. At the end of the year, he was arrested and placed in Penitentiary No. 13, in a cell from the basement, in inhuman conditions. Information that he raped a minor girl appeared on social networking sites. There was also information that he trafficked the girl together with her father. He was also accused of knowing about the abuses to which the girl was subject and of not reacting. Ultimately, the girl’s father was convicted in this case, but he believes that the man is not to blame.

After staying in jail for a month, the mayor was placed under house arrest for a month and later, based on a Comrat Appeals Court’s judgment, he returned to work. The investigation has lasted for four years, but no progress has been made. Prosecutor Lilian Bacalym, who was instructed to start this criminal case against him, is not punished for framing innocent persons.

Through videoconferencing, the former head of Basarabeasca district Ion Achiruș said that he was also a victim of the Moldovan justice system during the rule of the former leader of the Democratic Party Vladimir Plahotniuc. The case in which he was accused was handled by ex-prosecutor Roman Statnyi. This case was fabricated, while the prosecutor exerted pressure on judges of courts of all the levels. What happened to him and his mates was used as an example for district councilors so that these voted in a member of the Democratic Party as district head.