Former Defense Minister Valeriu Pasat wants Parliament to clear up his repute

Valeriu Pasat, former Moldovan Defense Minister and former chief of the Information and Security Service (ISS), addresses the Moldovan Parliament to set up a committee to examine and dot the ‘i’s’ in the so-called “Pasat case,” Info-Prim Neo reports. “After holding me in jail for two and a half years, without any reason, the authorities had to set me free. (…)From the very beginning, there was no doubt the dossier was a political order of President Vladimir Voronin. Unfortunately, this shameful story – which brought about severe damages to my Motherland – goes on,” reads a statement signed by Valeriu Pasat. The former ISS chief says he wouldn’t address the MPs, if the accusation of coup d’etat he is imputed now envisaged exclusively him. “Not only I am suspected of fanciful coup, but also a series of renowned politicians and people of culture,” Pasat says. The ex-Minister of Defense says he will ask the Council of Europe to further monitor the “Pasat case” and will appeal to the European Court of Human Rights. “I am not glad at all at the perspective of putting the Moldovan state in unfavorable light. I am confident our country must occupy a dignified place in the family of the European Community members, but we must learn to correspond to democratic standards in order to do that. Including by not permitting the appearance of penal filed on order, contrary to any legal norms,” Valeriu Pasat underlines. The trial in the “Pasat case” was resumed in March 2008 after a break of half a year. Valeriu Pasat was arrested on March 2005, and in January 2006 he was sentenced to ten years in jail for allegedly incurring damages of $1.8 million to the state. In July 2007, the Chisinau Court of Appeals acquitted the former Minister in one of the two indictments and released him from custody. The court decided Pasat was not guilty for selling 21 MIG-29 fighter jets in 1997. He was also amnestied in the indictment of selling Uragan missile launchers, for which he got 5 years of jail. The former minister is searched in two more dossiers, including for preparing a state coup.