Presidents of the Dondușeni and Fălești Territorial Offices of a former political party sentenced to 4 years in prison in a case by the NAC and APO

The Chișinău Court, Buiucani, today pronounced the conviction sentence regarding the presidents of the Dondușeni and Fălești Territorial Offices of a former political party. The two were found guilty of complicity in knowingly accepting illegal financing of the political party by an organized criminal group.

At the request of the Anticorruption Prosecutor's Office, following an extensive investigation conducted in collaboration with the National Anti-corruption Centre (NAC) and the Intelligence and Security Service (SIS), the court imposed on each defendant a sentence of 4 years in prison to be served in a semi-closed penitentiary. They were also deprived of the right to carry out activities related to the accounting and financial organization within political parties, as well as to be members of political parties, for a period of 4 years.

In the case of the president of the Dondușeni territorial organization, the court also ordered the confiscation of the amount of over 1.5 million lei, being taken under guard directly from the courtroom, as a result of the application of the preventive measure of preventive arrest.

For the president of the Fălești branch, the court decided to confiscate about one million lei. Since he did not appear at the sentencing, the previous preventive measure, the obligation not to leave the country, was replaced with preventive arrest, and the defendant was announced wanted for detention and enforcement of the sentence.

At the same time, the court maintained the seizure applied during the criminal investigation phase on the assets owned by the defendants.

According to the evidence administered by the NAC and the APO, between July and October 2022, the defendants, as leaders of the territorial offices of a former political party, would have knowingly accepted illegal funding totalling over 2.5 million lei, coming from an organized criminal group. The money would have been used to organize protests and pay the salaries of members of the territorial offices.

The defendants denied the charges throughout the trial.

The sentence can be appealed to the Chisinau Court of Appeal within 15 days.

Note: The person accused of committing a crime shall be presumed innocent until a final court decision of conviction is issued.