Alexandru Tanase blames Vlad Filat for protests of Christian-Orthodox believers

Former Minister of Justice Alexandru Tanase, currently a judge at the Constitutional Court, blamed Prime Minister Vlad Filat for the harassment he was being subjected to by Christian-Orthodox protesters. “I think the moral instigator of these actions and the harassment against me and my family is Prime Minister Vlad Filat”, stated Alexandru Tanase during a press conference at Info-Prim Neo on Monday, August 22. Earlier that day, the Tanase family had been awoken by group of Christian-Orthodox believers who protested at their windows blaming the former Minsiter of Justic for registering the Islamic religion in Moldova. Alexandru Tanase said that the Islam registration wasn’t a new problem. The issue had been discussed at a meeting in Geneva with the participation of Moldovan officials. “During that meeting, everyone unanimously agreed there were no legal obstacles for registering this denomination so that we took the decision to do it”, he said. According to Tanase, the Islamic denomination was registered on March 14 and no reaction followed until May, when “Synod of the Orthodox Church of Moldova decided to remove mentions about Prime Minister Vlad Filat from the holy service. On that occasion, the Prime Minister visited the Metropolitan Church of Moldova and made some statements that were far from reality”. “He claimed he had not known about the registration of the Islamic denomination, which isn’t true. During that visit, Mister Filat suggested the registration was illegal and that he would create a commission to annul the decision. However, the commission wasn’t created and the decision wasn’t annulled because it’s perfectly legal and in line with the constitutional norms”, explained the former Minister of Justice. Alexandru Tanase described the actions outside his house as pressure on him as judge of the Constitutional Court meant to influence his position on the interpretation of article 78 of the Constitution. “These actions were supposed to take place one week ago. I sent a message to Mister Filat through a contact person and he assured me he’d stop them and nothing would happen near my house. It seems something changed this week and he gave up his promise”, said Alexandru Tanase. He requested the state authorities to protect him against the harassment he was being subjected to. Alexandru Tanase filed a complaint about the protest outside his house to the Prosecutor General’s Office. The press conference of the former Minister of Justice was interrupted by members of the Pro-Ortodoxia Association, who blasted the former Minister and representatives of the Islam and sexual minorities. Igor Volnitchi, spokesman of Prime Minister Vlad Filat, declined to comment on Alexandru Tanase’s allegations. On Monday, August 22, at 7 AM, a group of representatives of the Christian-Orthodox Association protested outside the former Minister of Justice Alexandru Tanase’s house against the official registration of the Islamic religion.