AMN demands that probe into Rosca's alleged assassination attempt be terminated

Prosecutor Vladimir Mosneaga issued on Tuesday, January 27, an indictment charging MP Serafim Urecheanu and MP Ion Plesca of organizing an attempt on the life of Iurie Rosca, leader of the Christian Democratic People's Party. “The indictment reads that we are suspected of arranging an assassination attempt on the deputy speaker of Parliament. Just two or three lines, that's all. We were asked if we admitted the allegations and we denied”, MP Ion Plesca of the Moldova Noastra Alliance (AMN) told Info-Prim Neo, after being quizzed by the prosecutors. According to him, the prosecutors showed the suspects the logs of all their telephone calls, including calls with the alleged hit man. “We looked over the logs and saw that the calls which the prosecutors pinpointed had just three seconds in duration each. The logs show that I was phoned once and then I returned the call. Mr. Urecheanu was also called once, and he also tried to call back, and again three seconds. But at that time he was in intensive care and, believe me, wasn't thinking of such foolish things”, said Plesca, suggesting that the calls had been made to incriminate them and were part of a big hoax. During their today's interrogation at the General Prosecutor's Office, the two MPs submitted a request demanding that the investigation be closed for lack of evidence. The General Prosecutor is due to give a formal response in 72 days. If the request is rejected, the politicians say they will seek justice in court. According to the Moldovan legislation, all the criminal proceedings against candidates are banned during the election race. Only the persons who have been finally convicted in a criminal case are banned from campaigning. “You don't get a conviction in a week or two, nor in a month. It is just a hoax orchestrated by the authorities to spoil the image of the AMN. But things turned out the other way round”, added Plesca. The general prosecutor and the deputy minister of interior announced, on January 15, that Iurie Rosca was supposed to be murdered, but the hit man eventually gave up and phoned Rosca to tell him about the attempt. According to the General Prosecutor's Office and the Interior Ministry, the assassin had allegedly spoken over the phone with Serafim Urecheanu, Ion Plesca, and the former director of the Service of Information and Security, Valeriu Pasat.