Prosecutors sent to court the case of the attempted murder of the president of the Democratic Party (PDM) Vlad Plahotniuc that involves seven persons. Vitalie Busuioc, deputy chief prosecutor of the Prosecutor’s Office for Organized Crime and Special Cases, told a news conference that the seven are under arrest. There are also other persons investigated in this case, but the case against these hasn’t been yet sent to court. The prosecutor presented the scheme of the murder attempt that involved 13 persons, IPN reports.
Vitalie Busuioc said the actions of an organized criminal group in Ukraine that planned the murder of the Democratic leader Vlad Plahotniuc started to be documented in October 2016. The Ukrainian authorities that monitored the criminal group informed the Moldovan law enforcement agencies that the group members intended to travel to Moldova to commit a murder by order. At that time, the target and the one who ordered the murder weren’t known. The target was identified as a result of special investigation measures that included searches and arrests of suspects.
According to the prosecutor, the members of the criminal group acted on the instructions of Grigore Caramalac, who is known as “Bulgaru” in the criminal world. At the initial stage, the group consisted of persons close to Caramalac and the deputy head of the International Assistance Fund for Sports Veterans and Invalids Valeriu Zabolotnyi. These later attracted a Transnistrian with a criminal record. This realized he will be unable to fulfill the order by himself and sought assistance from a resident of Ukraine. For his part, this co-opted another two persons into the group.
In 2016, the members of the criminal group illegally crossed the state border three times. They came to Chisinau to decide the itinerary, the ways of access and withdrawal and other details of the attack. Two more persons were involved in the group this April. These were to stage the attack.
The prosecutor also said that Valeriu Zabolotnyi ensured the smuggling of four grenade launches, two guns with silencers, disguise elements and munitions into Moldova. These were kept in the basement of the house of one of the group members. On his instructions, an apartment was rented in Botanica district of Chisinau, where those who were to commit the murder lived. Zabolotnyi also organized the purchase of a car registered in Poland by which the group members were to leave the country after the commission of the crime.
Nine of those arrested made statements and a part of them admitted their guilt, some of these partially. It was found out that the executors were to receive US$200,000, but the amounts these already got are not yet known.
The prosecutors asked for a 30-day arrest warrant for Grigore Caramalac, who was put on the wanted list. A special commission will be set up for this to be extradited from Russia. An extradition request made earlier was rejected because this holds Russian nationality as well.
