The Superior Council of Prosecutors designated prosecutor Andrei Balan to investigate the alleged illegalities committed by the suspended prosecutor general Alexandr Stoianoglo in the case of the expulsion of Turkish teachers. Such a request was made by ex-MP Inga Grigoriu, who said that those who kidnapped the Turkish teachers were freed from punishment, while Stoianoglo didn’t take attitude, IPN reports.
Inga Grigoriu said that it goes to the defective investigation of an international high-profile case – the expulsion of Turkish teachers who had permanent residence in the Republic of Moldova. The goal was to illegally take the teachers out of the country using the financial resources of the state in the interests of a foreign state, as the ECHR ascertained by its judgment of June 2019. Also, the former director of the Security and Intelligence Service was arbitrarily exonerated of legal responsibility for his deeds.
“This case was intentionally hushed up, whereas the families of teachers haven’t been classed as victims in this case. The classification of the case was aimed at preventing the families from realizing what happened in September 2018. The designated prosecutor should tell why Alexandr Stoianoglo didn’t make use of his power and didn’t show attitude in such a high-profile case,” stated Inga Grigoriu.
The seven foreign citizens, who worked as teachers and managers at “Orizont” Lyceum, were declared undesirable and were expelled from Moldova on September 6, 2018. The expelled citizens were condemned in Turkey. On June 11, 2019, the European Court of Human Rights ascertained that the Republic of Moldova violated the rights of the seven Turkish teachers and obliged the state to pay by €25,000 to five of them.
Former SIS director Vasile Botnari was given a suspended sentence, being fined 88,000 lei. In three years of the expulsion of the Turkish teachers, the case hasn’t been declassified even if the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe recommended the Moldovan authorities to do so.
