The former Minister of the Interior Gheorghe Papuc, who was condemned in the April 7 case, didn’t cross the state border, at least officially, said the head of the General Police Inspectorate Ion Bodrug, according to whom, the ex-minister would have been arrested if he had appeared before the border police, IPN reports.
“He wasn’t registered as crossing the state border officially. As to the possibility of leaving the country, you know that the barbed wire was removed. The border with Ukraine is actually a field. It is represented rather on the map. It’s not excluded that he is in Chisinau or in Moldova,” Ion Bodrug told a news conference on February 5.
He noted it is the Chisinau Police Division that is to establish the whereabouts of the ex-minister, but he can be arrested by any employee of the subdivisions of the Ministry of the Interior.
The trial against Vladimir Botnari and Gheorghe Papuc started in June 2010. At the end of 2011, the Centru District Court acquitted the two generals, but the sentence was appealed. On January 19, the Chisinau Appeals Court sentenced the former minister to four years in jail. Papuc was found guilty of professional negligence during the April 7, 2009 protests that resulted in the death of a person - Valeriu Boboc. The former general police commissioner Vladimir Botnari was put on probation for a two-year period.
