The former head of the Anticorruption Prosecutor’s Office (APO) Viorel Morari, who was arrested on January 10, is suspected of illegally accepting a complaint from Vladimir Plahotniuc in March 2017, taking later legal action based on this and falsifying a number of documents. “This was done in his own interests and in the interests of the complainer and persons close to this so as protect them from investigation in the bank fraud case and to obstruct the swift, complete and objective examination of this case,” the Prosecutor General’s Office (PGO) said in a press release that is quoted by IPN.
On December 26, Prosecutor General Alexandr Stoianoglo started a criminal case over abuse of power and falsification of public documents against the chief prosecutor of the APO Viorel Morari, based on two notifications registered with the PGO. On the same day, Alexandr Stoianoglo entrusted a group of prosecutors and prosecuting officers managed by a prosecutor of the PGO with the task of conducting criminal prosecution.
On January 10, Viorel Morari was classed as a suspect and placed under arrest for 72 hours. He is now held at the remand prison of the Chisinau Police Division. Today, January 11, he is to be officially charged and questioned. He is also to be suspended from the post of prosecutor.
The PGO said Viorel Morari didn’t accept blame and does not cooperate with the investigation bodies at present. He threatened the prosecutor in charge of the case and such behavior is to be classified.
The inspections ordered by the prosecutor general a month ago at the Anticorruption Prosecutor’s Office and the Prosecutor’s Office for Organized Crime and Special Cases were completed on January 10. When the inspections started, Viorel Morari was suspended from the post of APO head. His appeal against the prosecutor general’s order was rejected.
Earlier, Viorel Morari said Prosecutor General Alexandr Stoianoglo wasn’t authorized to delegate him to work at another prosecutor’s office when the inspections were launched at the APO. He presumed that Alexandr Stoianoglo took the decision to remove him temporarily from the APO because he annulled the ordinance not to take legal action over the financing of the Party of Socialists.
