Story with Rosca's assassination attempt is fake, AMN

The prosecutorial probe into the alleged attempt on the life of Iurie Rosca, deputy Speaker and also leader of the Christian Democratic People's Party (PPCD), is “just a poorly prepared falsification”, declared the leader of the Moldova Noastra Alliance (AMN), Serafim Urecheanu, and AMN's MP Ion Plesca, believed by the Prosecutor General's Office and the Ministry of Interior to be involved in the attempt. The AMN called a news conference Friday to disclose some video footage which they believe would demonstrate that evidence in this case has been doctored, Info-Prim Neo reports. Serafim Urecheanu and Ion Plesca started the conference with denying the allegations, voiced yesterday by Prosecutor General Valeriu Gurbulea and Deputy Interior Minister Valentin Zubic at a news event, that the two AMN members contacted by telephone with the alleged hit man hired to kill Rosca. Urecheanu labeled the accusations “nonsense”, assuming that Gurbulea and Zubic have acted in the electoral interests of the Communist Party and the PPCD. The AMN intends to sue the two officials. The footage screened at the conference was taken on December 25 by a surveillance camera in a suburban pub, where the hit man reportedly collected an installment of his reward and a gun. The film depicts two men playing pool. But AMN insists the men on the footage are actually police agents, one of them being Zubic's aide. At a certain instance, one of them is seen approaching a wall, where, according to AMN spokesperson Victor Osipov, the man planted a small pack of narcotic drugs, discovered later during a police search on December 29. The search also discovered under the lining of the couch a package containing $11,000. The inscription on the wrapping read: “Second installment Rosca. Receipt after execution”. The surveillance footage was given to the AMN by the owner of the pub, and the Prosecutor General's Office has a copy of it, said Osipov. The AMN leader thinks the footage is an incontestable proof of the fact that the probe is “a mean and miserable operation” of the law enforcement bodies. “I can't imagine that supreme commander Voronin is not involved”, said Urecheanu. According to him, “the real target of this operation is the 2009 legislative elections and the image of the AMN, the main contestant for PCRM and PPCD”. The AMN has called on the international community to strictly monitor the situation. The conference was attended by representatives from the Czech Embassy, the European Commission Delegation and OSCE. The AMN will distribute information to all the diplomatic missions and will post the footage on its web site. MPs Serafim Urecheanu and Ion Plesca haven't been quizzed by the prosecutors in this probe yet.