General Prosecutor’s Office is investigating version of staged abduction of MP Vlad Cubreacov several years ago

The prosecution bodies are considering the version that the kidnapping of the vice president of the Christian Democratic People’s Party Vlad Cubreacov in 2002 was a put-up job. The investigations into this case go on, Moldova’s Prosecutor General Valeriu Gurbulea told Free Europe, quoted by Info-Prim Neo. The prosecutor said that they have collected evidence, but when asked to elaborate he said that taking into account the presumption of innocence, it is too early to assert or refute something. “We planned more investigations to further examine this version,” the prosecutor said. Asked to comment on these statements, lawyer Vitalie Nagacevschi said that the prosecutor did not provide him or Vlad Cubreacov with evidence showing that the kidnapping was a put-up affair. “As I do not have the proofs invoked by the prosecutor, I cannot bring counterarguments,” Nagacevschi said. The cited source also said that the prosecutor often makes contradictory statements and his latest assertions do not seem credible. Not long ago, Gurbulea said that there is no evidence to suggest that Vlad Cubreacov was hiding or that he had been kidnapped, Vitalie Nagacevschi said. The lawyer said that the prosecutor should have allowed them to examine the evidence so that they are able to bring counterarguments if need be. At the same time, Nagacevschi stressed that the prosecutor’s assertions are just words and cannot be accepted in a criminal case. “Gurbulea is going beyond certain limits that are also fixed in the Penal Code and he should be more attentive when making such statements,” Vitalie Nagacevschi told Free Europe, quoted by Info-Prim Neo. After the two former PPCD leaders Ion Neagu and Sergiu Burca in the autumn of 2007 declared that Cubreacov’s disappearance was a put-up job, at a sitting of the Parliament on December 6 Gurbulea said that they were investigating the case, but there was not enough evidence to draw a comprehensible and final conclusion that would enable to prove or refute the version built on the statements of the two ex-PPCD members. Cubreacov disappeared on 21 March 2002 and was found about two months later in the neighbourhood of Ustia village. Different statements were made on this case. Rosca and Cubreacov said that the abduction was organised by the Russian secret services. The leader of a Transnistrian nongovernmental organisation said recently that the former Minister of Defence Valeriu Pasat staged the kidnapping with the help of Russian services. Several years ago, the Tiraspol authorities said that they possessed evidence that the abduction was ordered by President Vladimir Voronin. The two former PPCD activists Ion Neagu and Sergiu Burca said that Cubreacov’s disappearance was planned by the management of the party and its leader Iurie Rosca.