Democratic MP Vladimir Cebotari said that if admitting that the phones of political opponents, journalists and civic activists were tapped during the rule of the Democratic Party, he can assure that the wiretapping goes on and things are much more profound than their political opponents assert, IPN reports.

“The problems are much more serious and you try to politicize them,” said Vladimir Cebotari, addressing his colleagues from Parliament, PAS MP Sergiu Litvinenko and PPDA MP Kiril Moțpan, who took part in the talk show “In Depth” on Pro TV Chisinau channel. He noted that if they want to solve the problem of wiretapping once and for all, they should not talk about this in the past only.

For his part, Sergiu Litvinenko said the problem of wiretapping is old in Moldova, but it reached unimaginable proportions when Vladimir Plahotniuc controlled all the state institutions. In that period the people felt terrorized and were afraid to even send messages to each other. “By the way, this runs counter to the Association Agreement,” he stated, noting the machinery used earlier by Vladimir Plahotniuc could be now used by President Igor Dodon. “If we don’t do a justice sector reform, those situations that existed at the time of Plahotniuc can repeat.”

Kiril Moțpan said the case of wiretapping shows the interceptions were performed intentionally. “It was clear that they collected information about the political opponents, the people. I will never stop wondering what this information can be used for. I’m sure that it could have been also used to blackmail political or business rivals,” he stated.

Several days ago, President Igor Dodon said that about 10,000 phone interceptions were performed in the course of 2018, while another 3,300 this year so far. Most of these acts were initiated by the Ministry of the Interior.