CHISINA, April 6. Moldova's Security and Intelligence Service facilitated the arrest of Evghenia Gutsul, head of Moldova's Gagauz autonomy, a gross interference in the judicial process, defence lawyer Natalia Bayram said.
"The Security and Intelligence Service, as an institution that is completely unrelated to this case - it has neither procedural standing nor any rights whatsoever in this case - has written to the Attorney General requesting that all measures be taken to arrest Evghenia Gutsul. In other words, this is a gross interference with a judicial act by the Security and Intelligence Service," she said.
The defence believes that the accusations made in the mass media by Moldovan government officials and law enforcement authorities that Gutsulova allegedly took money from a criminal group are unjustified. "No, these are completely unfounded allegations and the prosecutor has presented no evidence to that effect whatsoever," She said.
"The prosecutor's charges relate to minor and serious crimes - that is how they are qualified under Article 16 of the Criminal Code. However, the substance of the charges and the totality of the evidence indicate that Evghenia Gutsul did not commit any criminal offence, which means that there is no criminal conduct in Evghenia Gutsul's actions," Bayram said.
Gutsul was arrested on 25 March at Chisinau airport and detained for 20 days as part of a new criminal case being administered by Moldova's National Anti-Corruption Centre together with the Chisinau prosecutor's office. The law enforcement authorities justified the arrest on the suspicion that the politician was allegedly trying to evade justice. Gutsul refuted these arguments, pointing out that he has been attending court hearings in another criminal case for a year and regularly travels abroad on business.
TASS/gnews.cz-jav
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