Chirtoaca quizzed by prosecutors for 3 hours

Nearly three hours – that's how long Mayor Dorin Chirtoaca of Chisinau spent in the interrogation room face to face with Centru district prosecutors, who suspect him of usurpation of power and of being behind the violence on April 7, Info-Prim Neo reports. “I told them what I did on April 7, everything from the first hours of the morning until the last hours of the evening; how I went to the Parliament building together with Mihai Ghimpu, Vlad Filat, Alexandru Tanase and others; how I called on the crowds to return to the Great National Assembly Square; in the evening I urged everyone to stop protesting and go home”, Chirtoaca told reporters Wednesday evening after the interrogation. The mayor said he also talked with the prosecutors about the tapping of his telephone conversations, excerpts of which were inserted in a documentary called “Attack on Moldova” and broadcast on seemingly government-friendly television channels. “I proved them that those recordings have nothing in common with reality, they were just excerpts from several conversations with deputy mayor Vlad Cotet, which were later glued together. It was a natural thing to talk often with Cotet those days, because he was the only person not involved in elections and was very well informed about what was going on in the city”, explained Chirtoaca. Mayor Chirtoaca, who is also the vice president of the opposition Liberal Party, thinks that the proceedings against him are an invention of the law enforcement bodies and orchestrated by the ruling party in order to spoil his image, in particular, and the image of the opposition parties, in general. Chirtoaca and Mihai Ghimpu, the Liberal Party leader, have taken action against the channels NIT and N4 for libel, saying they intend to reach the European Court of Human Rights if the Moldovan justice system fails to satisfy their claims. Criminal proceedings have been opened against other politicians in the aftermath of the April events, including Liberal Democrats Vlad Filat, Alexandru Tanase, Mihai Godea, Vitalie Nagacevschi, Calin Vieru and Ion Butmalai. “I have no intention to make any statements before the prosecutors. We'll bring evidence before the court and before the electorate in the upcoming campaign”, said LibDem leader Vlad Filat, adding he would go directly to the ECHR to seek remedy for the marred reputation on television. “The government and judicial bodies serve only one party, those of the communists”, he declared. Proceedings have been started also against the leader of the Moldova Noastra Alliance (AMN), Serafim Urecheanu, and AMN city councilor Oleg Cernei.