Current and former MPs are witnesses in the so-called “kuliok” case started against ex-President Igor Dodon. According to Dodon, these are pseudo-witnesses as the main witnesses are Vlad Plahotniuc and Sergei Iaralov and the defense is ready to bring over 150 witnesses to prove his innocence, IPN reports.
“All the accusations are based on two aspects. The first component is an illegal video. Plahotniuc didn’t have the right to make that video. He wasn’t authorized by the prosecutors, the court to film the country’s President. They present yet not the original video. The so-called witnesses are the second aspect on which these proceedings are based. By the way, I want to say I will insist that all the hearings should be public,” Igor Dodon stated at the Supreme Court of Justice where the first hearing in this case was held.
According to Igor Dodon, the main witnesses are Plahotniuc and Yaralov who fled the country. Current MPs of the Party of Action and Solidarity Oazu Nantoi and Lilian Carp are among the “pseudo-witnesses”, as are former MPs of the Party “Dignity and Truth Platform” Andrei Năstase, Alexandru Slusari and Iurie Reniță and former Democratic MPs Dumitru Diacov, Pavel Filip, Andrian Candu and Vladimir Cebotari.
“We will have over 150 witnesses who will explain what happened during June 3-9-10, before Plahotniuc fled the country on June 14,” said Igor Dodon. According to him, the case was fabricated so as to distract public attention from real problems.
In front of the Supreme Court of Justice, members and sympathizers of the Party of Socialists mounted a protest, demanding fair justice.
The Anticorruption Prosecutor’s Office said that Igor Dodon is accused of passive corruption and organization and acceptance of financing for the political party from a criminal organization while holding office of President of the Republic of Moldova, in June 2019. He is accused of promoting the interests of Vlad Plahotniuc and Sergei Yaralov, who created and managed a criminal organization and aimed to control the political, social and economic processes in the Republic of Moldova and to avoid criminal liability in Russia, and of asking and accepting from these US$600 000 to US$1 000 000 for covering current costs of the PSRM.
