The Public Services Agency (ASP) has come up with a reaction after officers of the National Anti-Corruption Centre (CNA) and anti-corruption prosecutors carried out nine raids on several people targeted in a scheme of illegal takeover of land belonging to the Chisinau City Hall. Thus, the Public Services Agency announces that it is in active communication with the law enforcement agencies and is providing all necessary support in order to establish the guilty parties and fully elucidate the documented cases.

“The Public Services Agency hopes that this case, along with the others initiated by the law enforcement agencies in cases of corruption involving employees of the institution, will reach the courts,” the ASP also said.

The CNA announced on 14 December that seven people were being targeted by law enforcement officials after allegedly masterminding a scheme to illegally obtain land belonging to the Chisinau City Hall, causing considerable damage to the municipality.

“This morning, December 14, CNA officers and anti-corruption prosecutors conducted 9 raids on persons targeted in the organization of the scheme of illegal acquisition of municipality land. As a result of the prosecution, mobile phones, information carriers and draft documents were seized and one person was detained for 72 hours. He is being investigated for abuse of power or abuse of office. The other persons concerned are being investigated at this stage, at liberty, and the prosecutors will determine their procedural status in the light of the evidence gathered,” the CNA announced.

According to CNA, the scheme worked as follows: an employee of the ASP identified persons with property rights to land bordering on lots belonging to the City Hall, and then, together with them, installed concrete blocks at the borders of the land. Then they would build a shed or other allegedly temporary construction, already located on the City Hall lot, which they would legalize and register in the Real Estate Register.

At this stage, five cases of abusive seizure of Chisinau City Hall property have been identified.

Any person is presumed innocent until a final and irrevocable court decision is rendered.