Opposition party leader accused of bribery

The Ministry of Internal Affairs says that a foreign citizen accuses the ex-mayor of Chisinau, leader of “Moldova Noastra” Alliance (MNA) Serafim Urecheanu of causing him “considerable material damages”, Ala Meleca, the head of the Press Service told a news conference on February 6. MNA says these accusations are part of government coalition’s scenario set for the close local elections, Info-Prim Neo reports. According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, a foreign citizen whose name was not was not revealed “in the interest of the investigation”, said that during 1998-1999, the ex-mayor of Chisinau, Serafim Urecheanu “caused him a considerable material damage”. MIA says that because the ex-Mayor was a member of the Government and now a Member of Parliament, the file was forwarded to the General Prosecutor’s Office (GPO) to be verified. The head of MIA press unit did not provide any supplementary information upon the identity of the claimant, the amount of the damage or the object of the material damage. The head of GPO’s Press Service Maria Vieru told Info-Prim Neo that she did not know anything about the case. “No information is available yet”, Vieru stated. Several days ago, “Flux” newspaper owned by the deputy speaker of the Parliament Iurie Rosca wrote that “a Turkish businessman living in Lebanon asked the law-enforcement bodies of Moldova to start penal proceedings against the leader of “Moldova Noastra” Alliance Serafim Urecheanu, who solicited and received bribe”. According to the newspaper, Urecheanu asked USD 400 thousand for the purchase of a building located on Pushkin Street in Chisinau. At present, the building houses the “Sun City” Mall. According to MIA, the petitioner stated that at the request of the ex-mayor, the money were transferred on a special and secret account opened at Byblos Bank in Beirut, Lebanon on the name of a third person. MNA spokesman Victor Osipov said that both the article published in “Flux” and the statements of MIA are informational diversions that would not be worth commented, had they not been a political settling of accounts organised by the red-orange coalition. “All the actions undertaken by the government against the opposition are part of a scenario meant to intimidate and close down media institution”, the cited source says. Osipov claims that the settlement of accounts planned by the communists and Christian-democrats is generated by their fear that an opposition party will come to power and that a fair legal system will punish them for all the injustice they have done. According to him, MNA analyses the situation and will take an attitude if “these aberrations will transform into an official investigation”.