“Plahotniuc left, but the system remained.” This is how  ex-Premier Vlad Filat commented on the decision by the Buiucani branch of the Chisinau City Court to reject the request to replace judges Andrei Niculcea and Sergiu Lazari, to whom the second application to review the trial as a result of which Filat was convicted in the first case was distributed, IPN reports.

The former Prime Minister’s defense said in court that the request to replace the judges was made because Andrei Niculcea and Sergiu Lazari took part in the examination of the case of Vlad Filat and in his conviction to nine years in jail.  

“I don’t think and no one will persuade me that a judge who took part in my execution as part of the same so-called trial of Filat can now review their own decision, for the simple reason that this means reopening of the case and re-management of particular proofs that would fully turn upside down what the so-called prosecution means,” Vlad Filat stated in the trial.

Asked to comment on Vlad Plahotniuc’s decision to leave the leadership of the Democratic Party, Vlad Filat answered: “Was he a politician? He has never been a politician. He left for three times, don’t forget this. We should now think when he returns”.

Vlad Filat was arrested in October 2015 and was sentenced to nine years in jail for passive corruption and influence peddling on June 27, 2016. He is held in Penitentiary No. 13 in Chisinau. The ex-Premier is also investigated in another case, started over money laundering in very large amounts. Vlad Filat pleads not guilty.