The Criuleni district prosecutor’s office has sent to court the criminal case accusing the mayor of a commune in Criuleni district of committing the crime of inhuman and degrading treatment. According to the Prosecutor’s Office, which refers to the results of the forensic expert report, the victim suffered light bodily injuries, manifested by craniocerebral trauma, concussion, excoriation and bruising of the right upper limb.

The defendant was charged that on September 16, 2022, at approximately 08: 30, being at the Town Hall of the respective commune of Criuleni district, while performing his duties, as a result of a verbal conflict initiated with a subordinate, under the pretext that he did not draw up the documents on the organization and conduct of a competition, used physical and mental violence against her, expressed in raising his voice and using insulting words, then violently grabbed her by the right hand and struck her with his fist in the region of her head, causing her physical pain, actions which, taken as a whole, constitute inhuman and degrading treatment.

According to the Public Prosecutor’s Office, the defendant has been ordered not to leave the country. He currently pleads not guilty.

The person accused of committing a crime is presumed innocent until proven guilty by a final court decision.

On 19 September 2022, Ziarul de Gardă wrote about the allegations of violence in the premises of the Bălăbănești village hall in the Criuleni district. The secretary of the institution claimed that the mayor of the village physically assaulted her, dissatisfied with the fact that the woman had not been in charge of organising a competition for the appointment of a director at a kindergarten in Mălăieștii Noi. The civil servant, who was on sick leave at the time, filed a complaint with the police on behalf of the mayor. For his part, the local mayor denied the accusations and said he had not assaulted the woman, saying she “has a complicated character”. The family doctor at the Bălăbănești Health Centre, where the woman was referred, said that she had several health problems, but after initial consultations, the doctor said that no traces of violence were found on the woman’s body.

Some locals in the village claimed that in fact the two officials, the mayor and the secretary, had been in conflict since 2019, when the elected mayor of the village, Ion Cotoman, was sworn in, the woman being the goddaughter of the former mayor of the village.

Earlier, a ZdG source close to the two, the mayor and the secretary, told us that in fact the two are in conflict because of different political views. According to the source, the Town Hall secretary is the goddaughter of the former mayor of the village Ion Nistrean, elected on the lists of the Democratic Party of Moldova, the one with whom the current mayor dueled in the second round of the 2019 general local elections.