The head of the Public Association “Citizens for Rights of Children, Invalids and Pensioners” Ilie Rotaru accuses anticorruption prosecutors of fabricating criminal cases. In a news conference hosted by IPN, he related the case of Izabela Timofeeva who, as he said, was illegally convicted in two criminal cases and is now featured in the third case “owing to the prosecutors’ effort”.
Izabela Timofeeva was sentenced to ten years in jail for considerable swindle and money laundering and served seven of these. In 2019, when she was to be released, one more criminal case against her was started and she can be jailed again.
Ilie Rotaru, who earlier worked as a lawyer, said that the Supreme Court of Justice for three times quashed the conviction decision and the Appeals Court for three times insisted on the conviction of the woman. He doubts the authenticity of the provided evidence, saying the cases were fabricated. As the head of a public association that defends the rights of citizens, Ilie Rotaru undertook to compile and publish a list of persons who are to blame for illegal convictions in the Republic of Moldova.
“We will make a list of judges, in each of the case, who are responsible for illegal convictions. We founded this association with the intention of starting activities to counteract acts of illegal justice as the developments in the Republic of Moldova are unacceptable,” said Ilie Rotaru.
He suggested that the way in which state prosecutors act in cases of corruption should be checked to see how many of the criminal cases were started legally and reasonably. He said he sent many letters to the Prosecutor General’s Office and the Anticorruption Prosecutor’s Office, the President, the Premier and the prosecutor general and asked for an audience, but didn’t receive any response.
Izabela Timofeeva told the same news conference that the victims of the fabricated cases do not known where to go and who to seek help from. “Regrettably, the lawyers do not want to come into conflict with the Prosecutor’s Office,” said the woman. She noted that the only possibility in this situation is to go to public associations, like the Association “Citizens for Rights of Children, Invalids and Pensioners”.
The conference forms part of the series of conferences held as part of IPN News Agency’s project “Support for the Justice Reform through multimedia coverage of cases of alleged injustice”. The Agency does not bear responsibility for the public statements made in the public sphere by the organizers of news conferences. IPN News Agency gives the right of reply to persons who consider they were touched by the news items produced based on statements of the organizers of the given news conference, including by facilitating the organization of another news conference in similar conditions.