The mayor of Chisinau’s suburban commune of Truseni has been transferred from house arrest to the National Anticorruption Center’s preventive detention facility, as decided by the Chisinau Court of Appeals.

Ion Apostol was arrested in early June for allegedly depriving gardeners’ associations of land in the commune and letter selling the plots to third parties and pocketing the money.

Anastasia Mihalceanu, spokesperson of the Anticorruption Prosecutor’s Office, told IPN the latest court decision overrules a previous one from a lower court that gave Apostol 30 more days of house arrest.

Mayor Ion Apostol of Truseni and other suspects were arrested on June 13, after the investigation claimed that he used his influence and legal sleights of hand to sell plots in the suburban commune, which holds the popular residential area Dumbrava.