University teacher Ilie Rotaru said that during 15 years he has been under illegal criminal investigations that were started by order of politicians. According to him, the investigations are aimed at intimidating him and at exerting pressure on him in the case of the assets of SA “Gemeni”.
In a news conference at IPN, the lawyer said he analyzed things and ascertained that 25,000 criminal cases a year were started in 2005-2011 on average. A record number was achieved in 2010 - 33,000 cases. “About 10,000-15,000 cases were sent to court, while the others remained in the drawers of prosecutors for a period so that they realized their intentions. Of the cases sent to court, in one third of them the people were acquitted,” he stated.
Ilie Rotaru noted that he tried for multiple times to speak about the committed illegalities, but this subject, according to him, does not seem to interest much primarily those from the system, who want particular information not to be made public. “This machinery has worked without a halt, as the prosecutors and investigators wanted. Later, if these want, they send the cases to court. If not, they don’t send them. If they send them, they do everything possible and exert pressure on judges or most of the times work together in order to obtain a conviction,” stated the lawyer.
According to Ilie Rotaru, a criminal case by order of ex-President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko was started against him in 2005. The case hasn’t been yet sent to court. After he complained to the European Court of Human Rights and the Court inquired at what stage the case was, the governmental agent said the case was dropped in 2014. But this lied and the ECHR is to pronounce on this case.
Ilie Rotaru also said that cases against him were also started by order of the former leader of the Democratic Party Vlad Plahotniuc. A number of illegal decisions in the case of SA “Gemeni” and complaints to the ECHR followed. The Court urged the Government to identify an amicable solution. As a result, the pressure against him only grew. He was sentenced to nine years in jail, but wasn’t arrested. “I was recommended to leave the Republic of Moldova as soon as possible if I wanted to keep my freedom. I was told that the judges feel remorse for convicting me, but they didn’t have another way out. This case is pending at the Supreme Court of Justice and its examination is delayed,” stated the lawyer.
The conference was held as part of IPN’s project “Injustice Revealed through Multimedia”. IPN Agency does not assume the right to decide if the organizers of news conferences are right in the cases about which they will speak as this is the exclusive prerogative of justice, but the exaggeratedly long examination period of these cases, which is much longer than the law allows, can be considered an act of evident unfairness and injustice. IPN News Agency does not bear responsibility for the public statements made in the public sphere by the organizers of news conferences.
