The sentence in the case regarding the corruption of MPs could be pronounced on July 12, announced prosecutor Vitalie Galeru. The examination of the case is over and the sides are now to present the closing arguments, IPN reports.
The case involves former policeman Vitalie Burlacu and his girlfriend Irina Baglai. In the July 11 hearing, the prosecutor asked that Vitalie Burlacu should be jailed for 12 years and fined 160,000 lei, while Irina Baglai should be given six years’ imprisonment and a fine of 120,000 lei. Vitalie Galeru explained that Vitalie Burlacu organized the offense and thus should serve more time in jail, while his girlfriend acted as an accomplice.
“We also asked that the €553,000, US$403,000 and 48,000 Russian rubles and the Porsche Cayenne car purchased by the two for committing the offense, which were seized during the investigation and the trial, should be confiscated and transferred to the state,” said Vitalie Galeru.
Lawyer Anatolie Ceachir said the law provides that the punishment for organizing any offense cannot be longer than half of the punishment for the offense itself. “If we analyze things, we see that the prosecutor couldn’t have asked for such jail terms,” he stated. Active corruption in Moldova is punished with 6 to 12 years behind bars.
As a result of an operation performed by officers of the National Anticorruption Center on March 7, 2014, Vitalie Burlacu and Irina Baglai were caught in the act of transmitting US$250,000 to an intermediary. The money was to be passed on to an MP for persuading this to leave the government coalition. Later, anticorruption prosecutors found over half a million euros in a safe deposit box in a commercial bank in Chisinau. The box was rented by Irina Baglai.
