MIA denies that the arrest of the Pro TV Chisinau employee was inappropriate

The Ministry of Internal Affairs refutes the accusations forwarded by Pro TV Chisinau channel that Ghenadie Braghis, the sales manager of the company, was unfairly arrested. According to the official site of MIA, Ghenadie Braghis, the sales manager of the „Media-Pro”, on September 7 was “caught red handed, while receiving from an economic agent the amount of USD 1 thousand in return for the broadcasting of their commercials on the Pro TV Chisinau TV channel in peak hours”. A penal investigation was initiated on the case based on the 333rd article of the Penal code of the Republic of Moldova “Bribery”. MIA declared that “the civil order bodies have acted and will continue to act according to current legislation papers”, and the arrest of Braghis was “an ordinary anti-corruption action”. Moreover, the minister is willing to offer any information on the topic after the investigations are over. According to the 2nd paragraph of the 333rd article of the Penal Code, ‘’if a person managing a commercial, public or other non-governmental organization or a subdivision of these, takes a bribe in the form of money, bonds, other goods with patrimonial nature, or accepts services, privileges or favors that are improper in order to make (or not make) some actions, or delaying an action in the favor of the briber or the persons that represent him, if such actions is the obligation of the bribers’ work contract, are punished by a fine of 1000 to 3000 conventional units or with imprisonment for 5 to 10 years, and is also deprived of the right to be employed in certain activities from 2 to 5 years”. The lawyers of Ghenadie Braghis, Vladislav Rosca and Ion Dascalu claim that the suspect is not affected by this article, as he is not the administrator of a commercial, social or of other non-governmental organization, or subdivision of these. Moreover, the contact between the sales manager of Pro TV Chisinau and the denouncer Mihai Balan, director of „Miramond Trans” SRL transport company cannot be a direct commercial relation, and is done through an advertising company responsible for the contract of the two companies. Several political leaders from Chisinau have labeled the arrest of the Pro TV Chisinau employee as one of the many abuses of the public order bodies, made with the intention to shift public's attention from severe economic and social problems of the Moldovan society. Pro TV Chisinau has categorized this incident as fictional and set up by MIA as a response to the TV channel’s journalistic inquiries, which found numerous malfunctions in the minister’s activity or visited minister Papuc.