Businessman Veaceslav Platon stated that he could have been released from jail after he was illegally sentenced to 18 years in 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, IPN reports.

“The entire press said the release of Platon was due to particular actions of Igor Dodon. But that additional year I served in jail was actually due to Dodon,” Veaceslav Platon stated in the talk show “Forth Power” on N4 TV channel.

According to him, the head of the Office of the then President, Nicolae Posturusu, went to courts and demanded that he should remain in jail. He argued that if Platon was set free, the President’s rating would decline. “I will not assess those actions now, but this is how it happened. Sincerely speaking, I was shocked when I learned about this,” noted Platon.

Asked if he will sue Igor Dodon, Veaceslav Platon said this cannot be proven regrettably.

Veaceslav Platon was arrested in July 2016. In April 2017, the Chisinau City Court sentenced him to 18 years in jail for swindle and money laundering in very large amounts that caused damage of over 800 million lei to Banca de Economii. On May 18, 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.