A group of mothers and fathers with children in their arms on October 29 picketed the building of the National Anticorruption Center, demanding to release doctor Vadim Scarlat, who was arrested last week in a case of corruption, from remand detention. They submitted to the Center a petition that was signed online by about 1,500 persons, who expressed their support for the protest, IPN reports.

Singer Corina Țepeș said obstetrician-gynecologist Vadim Scarlat is one of the few good specialists working in Moldova and his place is at his workplace. Many women chose to give birth at the institution where he works and dozens of women who intended to give birth assisted by Vadim Scarlat now don’t know what to do. “Given that he is only a suspect, he should be placed under house arrested not in remand detention,” stated the singer.

Protester Tatiana Ţapes said one year ago she gave birth to a boy assisted by Vadim Scarlat and today she came to publicly to thank him for his efforts and to tell him that she considers him innocent. “Scarlat is not a criminal. We know that there are many envious persons today. We came to support him because Moldova needs specialists like Scarlat,” she noted.

Last week, the National Anticorruption Center  detained ten persons on corruption charges. These included five judges, a prosecutor, a lawyer, a judicial assistant, a doctor and a private individual. The judges are suspected of asking and receiving large sums of money for passing favorable judgments in a number of examined criminal cases. The lawyer and the prosecutor acted as intermediaries in the transfer of the money. The decisions were to be pronounced in favor of the doctor and the private individual.

The press reported that Vadim Scarlat is accused of giving €2,000 bribe to a judge for this to rule in his favor in a case of professional negligence that led to the death of a newborn.