Former Moldovan Railways (CFM) chief Iurie Topala, charged with abuse of office, remains in pre-trial detention. On Thursday, 8 December, judges of the Chisinau Court of Appeals rejected the appeal filed by Topală’s lawyers against the annulment of the preventive measure and upheld the first court’s decision, which extended the preventive arrest of the former CFM chief for another 30 days.

The information was confirmed to Ziarul de Gardă by Ion Bocan, spokesman of the Chisinau Court of Appeal.

The Chisinau Ciocana court decided on 30 November that former Moldovan Railways (CFM) chief Iurie Topala remains in pre-trial detention for another 30 days.

Former CFM chief Iurie Topala, detained in January 2022 by INTERPOL officers in Belgium, was extradited to Moldova on 3 November 2022. On 4 November, the Prosecutor General’s Office (PG) announced that Iurie Topala’s lawyers had challenged for the third time at the Chisinau Court of Appeal the 30-day preventive arrest warrant issued on 29 July 2021 against him.

On 14 November, the magistrates of the Chisinau Court of Appeal (CA) rejected the appeal filed by Iurie Topala’s lawyers against the preventive arrest measure. Thus, Iurie Topală remained in custody in Penitentiary No. 13.

According to the IGP, Iurie Topală is under criminal investigation under Art. 190, para.5 (Fraud), Art. 191, para. 5 (embezzlement of foreign property), art. 325, para. 2 (active corruption), art.327, para. 1 (abuse of power or abuse of office).

On 11 January 2022, the Belgian authorities detained Iurie Topala at the “Gosselies – Charleroi” airport in Belgium. At that time, representatives of the Prosecutor General’s Office told ZdG that an arrest warrant had previously been issued for Topală in a criminal case initiated in connection with the mismanagement of CFM from 2015 to 2019, as a result of which CFM was damaged by 250 million lei.

“The former director of the Moldovan Railways, Iurie Topală, has been detained by the Belgian authorities and is to be extradited to the Republic of Moldova. An arrest warrant has been issued for him and he is wanted internationally. The warrant was issued in the framework of a criminal case initiated, on the fact of abuse of office, committed in the interest of an organized criminal group, in connection with mismanagement at the Moldovan Railways, produced in the period 2015-2019, as a result of which the enterprise was damaged by 250 million lei,” PG representatives told ZdG.

Iurie Topala, a former municipal councillor and an exponent of the Liberal Party, led the MFC from 2015 to 2019. In 2019, Ziarul de Gardă wrote that Topală owns a thriving business in the road sector – “Ruta-Prim” Ltd. – which manages routes 113, 135, 186, 188, 192 in Chisinau – 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 an investigation by Ziarul de Gardă on the administration of the Chisinau routes.