The economy of Moldova has been seriously affected by the arrest of businessman Gabriel Stati, says the Balti municipal councilor Sergiu Banari, Info-Prim Neo reports. At a news conference on Monday, the councilor said that immediately after Gabriel Stati’s arrest, the number of foreign investors willing to develop businesses in Moldova fell significantly. “This is because the foreign businessmen are afraid of the totalitarian system and dictatorship established in Moldova after the April 7 events,” said Sergiu Banari, who ran as independent in the April 5 elections. He also said that before the parliamentary elections, a large number of investors tested the waters, planning to transfer their businesses from Europe to Moldova. “But, immediately after April 5, when the elections had been rigged as the Moldovan Opposition and representatives of the Council of Europe stated and confirmed, the trust in Moldova’s democracy and judicial system diminished considerably. Under such circumstances, the foreign businessmen gave up the idea of investing in Moldova as they do not feel economically and physically safe here,” Banari said. He stated that he personally knows three investors from Austria and Italy that abandoned their projects in Moldova. The Austrian company alone was to create 1,800 workplaces at a mobile phone factory that it intended to open. The foreign investors were mostly discouraged by Gabriel Stati’s arrest, says the councilor. Though not knowing him personally, Sergiu Banari says that Stati is an honest and prosperous businessman, “a symbol of the Moldovan economy”. Banari is sure that his arrest is only a pretext used by President Vladimir Voronin to take revenge on the Stati family that refused to finance the electoral campaign of the Communist Party or because they are wealthier than his son, Oleg Voronin. The councilor does not rule out that Gabi Stati’s arrest is aimed at removing the Stati family from the oil market in Kazakhstan, which is purportedly of interest to the Voronin family. Sergiu Banari considers that Moldova can become more attractive to foreign investors only after the real organizers of the April 7 violent protests are arrested. According to him, these include the Minister of the Interior Gheorghe Papuc, the leader of the Christian Democratic People’s Party (PPCD) Iurie Rosca and more than 100 provokers brought by the police to the Parliament and Presidential Office. Earlier, the Ministry of the Interior and the president of the PPCD denied having been involved in the organization of the public disorder. Businessman Gabriel Stati and the head of the guard of Ascom Grup Aurel Marinescu are held in the Penitentiary No. 13 in Chisinau. They are accused of organizing and financing the April 7 protests.