Where is the mayor from Vorniceni?, AMN

The Moldova Noastra Alliance (AMN) has submitted a number of complaints to the General Prosecutor's Office, asking for explanations as to the case of the AMN mayor from Vorniceni village, Gheorghe Ionel, who is missing since Friday, February 27, after he attended a court session. The party asks to be informed whether the mayor was arrested and why. The AMN admits that Gheorghe may have been kidnapped, Info-Prim Neo reports. The mayor of Vorniceni has been held up several times for the last two years being accused in two investigations of smuggling people and power abuse. A week and a half ago, the Appellate Court from gave the case Ionel in the trial related to trafficking in human beings, and Friday, the court from Straseni found him innocent in the second trial and set him free. After the sentence was pronounced a fight occurred in the court room. “As soon as the sentence was pronounced and Gheorghe Ionel was acquitted on all the accusations counts, 12 masked people entered the room, dressed in anti-corruption squad uniforms. Other 30 anti-corruption officers were inside and out the court room. When the mayor's supporters asked for explanations, the ECCC officers started to beat everybody, swearing in Russian,” said president of Straseni district Nicolae Robu, at a news conference on March 2. Robu said a pregnant woman was hit in her belly, he personally was hit in his chest, hands and legs. First deputy president of AMN, Veaceslav Untila, says the Vorniceni mayor disappeared in that chaos. “The prosecutor in the Straseni court told us the mayor allegedly ran away. And my question was why a man just set free should run? We don't know where the mayor is now. On the other hand, officers from the Economic Crimes and Corruption Combating Center say they did not hold him up. On the other hand, his wife and children, everybody who knows him ask where he is, because he is not at home. There have been many abuses for the last two years, that is why we don't rule out Gheorghe Ionel was kidnapped,” Veaceslav Untila said. He does not rule out that Gheorghe Ionel, knowing he cannot count on the Moldovan judiciary, has decided to disappear. Veaceslav Untila says the penal inquests against Gheorghe Ionel were fabricated following a political command of the ruling party, after the Communists' (PCRM) representative was defeated in Vorniceni in the local elections of 2007. The AMN launches an appeal to the international and European bodies, the diplomatic missions to Chisinau and the NGOs defending human rights, the judiciary's independence and impartiality and make the necessary pressing to make the Moldovan central authorities observe those. “It's also obvious that in the conditions of a quasi-totalitarian regime, the possibility to hold free elections is becoming more and more utopian,” the appeal reads. When asked by Info-Prim Neo, the press service of the ECCCC has said Gheorghe Ionel is not in the remand center of the anti-corruption squad, but rejected to comment the actions of the ECCCC's employees. The press service of the General Prosecutor's Office confirms they got several complaints from the AMN. The prosecutor's office maintains it will consider the complaints and will provide the asked information, under the law.