Former Moldovan Railways chief remains in prison. Chișinău judges rejected the appeal filed by his lawyers
The magistrates of the Chisinau Court of Appeal (CA) rejected on Monday, November 14, the appeal filed by lawyers of the former head of the Moldovan Railways (CFM) Iurie Topala, accused of abuse of office, against the measure of preventive arrest. Iurie Topala remains in custody in Prison No. 13.
The information on the decision issued by the magistrates of the Chisinau Court of Appeal was confirmed to Ziarul de Gardă by Emil Gaitur, spokesperson of the Prosecutor’s Office for Combating Organized Crime and Special Cases (PCCOCS).
“PCCOCS prosecutors are continuing the criminal prosecution actions, with a view to speeding up the sending of the case to trial, during which time the person is entitled to the presumption of innocence, according to the law,” a statement from the Prosecutor’s Office said.
On November 4, the Prosecutor General’s Office (PG) announced that Iurie Topala’s lawyers have challenged at the Chisinau Court of Appeal, for the third time, the preventive arrest warrant for 30 days of July 29, 2021 on his behalf.
The former head of the MFC, detained in January 2022 by INTERPOL officers in Belgium, was extradited to Moldova on 3 November 2022.
Iurie Topala was escorted by police to the PCCOCS. The former head of CFM “is accused by prosecutors of abuse of office, between 2015 and 2019, which caused damage estimated by the company at 250 million lei”.
On 11 January 2022, the Belgian authorities detained Iurie Topală at the “Gosselies – Charleroi” airport in Belgium. At that time, PG representatives told ZdG that an arrest warrant had previously been issued in Topală’s name in a criminal case initiated in connection with CFM’s mismanagement from 2015-2019, as a result of which CFM was damaged by 250 million lei.
Iurie Topală, a former municipal councillor and an exponent of the Liberal Party, led CFM from 2015 to 2019. In 2019, ZdG wrote that Topală owned a thriving business in the road sector – “Ruta-Prim” Ltd. – which managed in Chisinau the routes: 113, 135, 186, 188, 192 – with more than 240 minibus units and about 25 buses on route 22 and the Chisinau-Grătiești route.
In 2012, Iurie Topală’s name appeared in a ZdG investigation into the administration of routes in Chisinau. Read more here
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