The lawyers for the mayor of Basarabeasca town Valentin Cimpoieș plead for the acquittal of the mayor in the case that was started back in 2017 and hasn’t been yet settled. They said the criminal case was started under the rule of the Democratic Party as the mayor didn’t allow to be blackmailed and refused to join this party. The hearing in which a judgment is to be ultimately passed after multiple delays was set for November 15.
In a news conference staged by IPN, lawyer Iulian Pascari said the case featuring Valentin Cimpoieș was started in 2017. It was pending at the Basarabeasca Court but was then transferred to the Hâncești Court by the decision of the Penal Board of the Supreme Corium of Justice following an approach made by the prosecutor general.
The prosecutor general wasn’t entitled to make such an approach as he wasn’t a party in the trial. In the end, the lawyers at the Hâncești Court asked to ensure the translation of the documents, to present the indictment and to offer the lawyers and the accused time to familiarize themselves with the materials of the case. As Valentin Cimpoieș speaks Russian, the materials of the case had been translated during over half a year and were then handed over to him. Six prosecutors were replaced in this case since 2017.
In February 2021, the prosecutor in charge of the case dropped a part of the charges against Cimpoieș, making reference to a Constitutional Court decision of 2019. The state prosecutor asked in court to drop the case on condition that the accusations are accepted. But the defense insisted on acquittal. The court had examined the prosecutor’s request for two months. The hearings were put off for multiple times for different reasons. A hearing was ultimately scheduled for September 27. The prosecution insisted on their demand, while the defense asked for Valentin Cimpoieș’ acquittal. It was later announced that the sentence will be given on November 15.
Lawyer Anatolie Istrate said that Valentin Cimpoieș ran independently and was elected mayor in 2015. He served for about a year and a half and a criminal case was then started against him. The prosecutors charged him with misconduct in office for not intervening as a public figure to deal with an alleged case of sexual abuse and exploitation against a minor girl by her father and another person in 2012-2016. But Valentin Cimpoieș was elected mayor in 2015.
The laywers demand that the mayor of Basarabeasca should be acquitted as he didn’t commit misconduct in office as a mayor. According to Anatolie Istrate, Valentin Cimpoieș is a respectable public figure who fulfills his duties and his election for a second term in office is a proof of this. The lawyers called on the judicial authorities to take attitude to this case and to other similar cases and intervene so as to improve the legislation on the penal procedure.
The conference forms part of the series of conferences held as part of IPN News Agency’s project “Support for the Justice Reform through multimedia coverage of cases of alleged injustice”. The Agency does not bear responsibility for the public statements made in the public sphere by the organizers of news conferences. IPN News Agency gives the right of reply to persons who consider they were touched by the news items produced based on statements of the organizers of the given news conference, including by facilitating the organization of another news conference in similar conditions.
