Chisinau City Hall accused of corruption over demolition of landmarks

The Chisinau City Hall is accused of tolerating corruption schemes that lead to the demolition of historical monuments and even of participating in them instead of enforcing the law. The accusations were made by lawyers Violeta Gasitoi and Roman Zadoinov and by the director general of the Agency for Monument Inspection and Restoration Ion Stefanita, Info-Prim Neo reports. In a news conference, Ion Stefanita said that the Chisinau administration’s jurist did not present all the proofs needed by the judge to take an appropriate decision in the case in which the City Hall was accused of issuing a document that allowed taking down a monument situated at 52 Schusev St and building a hotel instead of it. Moreover, the City Hall employee who authorized the demolition of the monument was interested in having the building knocked down as he designed the hotel that was to be erected. The lawyers and the director of the Agency for Monument Inspection and Restoration consider that this person was paid for making sure that the authorization for the demolition was issued. Ion Stefanita also said that the monument’s owner intentionally let the building to be destroyed naturally and did nothing to stop the ruining. He stressed that the mechanism for the protection of historical monuments is not functional. Roman Zadoinov said that all the rules were broken in the case of the building situated on Schusev St. Evidence was hidden during the trial. Also, there were made false statements and the right to a fair trial was violated. Violeta Gasitoi considers that the irregularities were committed following an agreement reached by the owner of the building and City Hall employees, who pursued certain goals. The building located at 52 Schusev St is a national architectural monument that was included in the Register of Historical and Cultural Monuments of Chisinau municipality. The first documents about the building date from 1851, when it belonged to Ivan Svaricebsky. The building was constructed in eclectic style, with modern trends.