Valentin Eșanu, businessman who was convicted in a “political” criminal case and was rehabilitated, said the real reasons for which criminal cases were started against him were the protests he organized in favor of liberalizing the ferrous and non-ferrous metals market and also the revelations he made about the money laundering schemes employed at “Metalferos”. The fact that a note with the years to which he was to be sentenced was found at the ex-president of the Supreme Court of Justice (SCJ) shows that his case was under control. The businessman developed the issue in the public debate “Political” criminal cases: protagonists, methods, goals, consequences” that was staged by IPN News Agency.
The president of the Metals Employers Association said that in the autumn of 2019, the Anticorruption Prosecutor’s Office carried out searches at the then president of the SCJ Ion Druță. There was found a note with his name and surname, the cases started against him and also the number of years in jail he was to get and the conditions of the trial – to reject all the requests of lawyers and the right to defense and during two months to sentence him to five years behind bars for the erecting of a fence that didn’t even belong to him.
According to Valentin Eșanu, these facts show once again that his case was in the control of the then president of the SCJ, on someone’s instructions.
The businessman also spoke about the conditions in which he was held in penitentiaries No. 13 and 16. “I was held in a cell alone for a year, without radio and newspapers, under a specialized control regime. No guard was allowed to open my door. The conditions were very harsh. I was taken to the women’s shower room on Sunday so that I could not speak to anyone. They pressed me psychologically. They threw cellphones in my cell so that I was deprived of the right to get parcels for illegal presence of cellphones. But I won the case in court as I could prove that those cellphones didn’t belong to be,” related Valentin Eșanu.
He noted that when he was held in jail in horrible conditions, his only hope to be set free was in the European Union, including in the involvement of the EU Delegation in Chisinau, which closely followed his case. Representatives of the Delegation attended also hearings during his trial and the behavior of functionaries of the justice system in their presence changed, becoming legal.
According to the businessman, those who fabricated his cases, starting with investigation officers and ending with prosecutors and judges, continue to hold the posts. Some of them were even promoted. “They destroyed lives and families. The business entities’ confidence in state institutions is equal to zero. Investments will probably not be made as the remains of Plahotniuc’s regime persist.”
Valentin Eșanu considers such a situation will continue as long as political parties, prosecutors, judges, functionaries are financed with illegal funds and no progress will be made until society realizes that such things should be ended.
The debate “Political” criminal cases: protagonists, methods, goals, consequences” was the 140th installment of the series of debates “Developing political culture through public debates” that is supported by the Hanns Seidel Foundation.
