Businessman Veaceslav Platon was found not guilty in the bank fraud case in which he was earlier sentenced to 18 years behind bars. The decision taken by the Buiucani Court yesterday is final and cannot be challenged, IPN reports, quoting a press release issued by Veaceslav Platon.

Veaceslav Platon considers the fact that his innocence was proven in court on June 14, exactly two years of the moment Vlad Plahotniuc fled the country, is symbolical. The businessman reminded that he was put on the wanted list by order of the regime of Plahotniuc and was illegally extradited from Ukraine in July 2016. In April 2017, he was sentenced to 18 years in jail for swindle and money laundering.

Since he was arrested in July 2016 and until his release on June 15, 2020, Veaceslav Platon had been held in a single cell in the basement of Penitentiary No. 13.

Recently, the businessman said that he could have been released from jail back in September 2019, three months after the ex-president of the Democratic Party Vlad Plahotniuc fled the country. But this didn’t happen because the then President Igor Dodon was concerned about his own rating.

In May 2020, Prosecutor General Alexandr Stoianoglo said the case started against Veaceslav Platon was fully fabricated and a procedure to review the sentence will be initiated. This way, after spending four years in jail, the sentence of 2017 was suspended on June 15, 2020 and Veaceslav Platon was set free.

The PGO started the procedure for reviewing the case of Veceaslav Platon and the prosecutors dropped the charges against the businessman on May 28 this year.

Also on May 28, President Maia Sandu said Platon’s grouping poses a threat to the state security. The swiftness with which the prosecution dropped the charges against this grouping is extremely worrisome and they will therefore analyze the prosecutor’s ordinance so as to see the legality and reasonableness behind this dubious decision that scandalizes society.