The hearing in the case of former Prime Minister Vlad Filat set for June 3 was put off. State prosecutor Adriana Betisor said the accused’s defense submitted a number of applications to court, including for accepting a new list of witnesses. The court rejected these. Filat’s layer Igor Popa described the trial as an orchestrated show, saying the court groundlessly rejects all the applications of the defense, IPN reports.
Adriana Betisor said the court rejected the defense’s request to bring the witnesses by force as there was provided no evidence showing that the witnesses were informed by lawyers about the hearing in which they were to be questioned. The request to accept a new list of 20 witnesses was also rejected because these witnesses do not bear relation to the criminal case, while the defense didn’t indicate their contact data at least. The lawyers actually want to delay the process.
For his part, Igor Popa said the witnesses included in the additional list have what to declare as they know many circumstances of activities that took place in the investigated period. They asked the court to invite a specialist from the team of Kroll that is now carrying out the second part of the investigation into the bank fraud. The court rejected this request too, but this specialist could have shed light in this case.
“We are bewildered. I don’t know if we can continue the work of lawyers in this case as the judges, without perceiving the essence of our applications, reject them,” stated the lawyer, noting yet that he will never abandon the case of Vlad Filat.
Igor Popa said that Vlad Filat could soon get an illegal sentence and this is the goal that is pursued by the judges. “We do not think that Vlad Filat will be done justice in the Republic of Moldova and will thus continue to seek justice outside the country,” he stated.
A new hearing was scheduled for next week.
Vlad Filat pleads not guilty of passive corruption and influence peddling.
