The first court hearing in the case concerning the “defence of honour, dignity and professional reputation”, in which Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Infrastructure and Regional Development Andrei Spînu asked the capital mayor Ion Ceban to deny the “denigrating” statements made against him in a broadcast, will take place on March 28, 2023. Minister Andrei Spînu says Ion Ceban “will have to answer for all the lies thrown” against him.

Capital mayor Ion Ceban’s spokeswoman, Natalia Ixari, did not respond to calls from Ziarul de Gardă for comment on the matter.

In November 2022, Minister of Infrastructure and Regional Development Andrei Spînu sent the capital’s mayor Ion Ceban the preliminary request for a court injunction, asking him to deny the “denigrating” statements made against him on Jurnal TV’s “Secrets of Power” show. Spînu says he asked Ceban to “publicly deny, within 5 days from the date of examination of the preliminary request, the information spread” on the 2 November broadcast, and to pay “moral damages”.

“I requested him: – To publicly deny, within 5 days from the date of examination of the preliminary request, the information spread on 02.11.2022 on the talk-show “Secrets of Power” on Jurnal TV at 20:00, moderated by Alex Cozer, and the information spread on 03.11.2022 on his official Facebook page, which concerns me.

Payment and compensation, as moral damage, of the sum of 1 leu and sweeping, in the public interest, of the City Hall mun. Chisinau for one year, starting 28.11.2022″, reads a message from Minister Andrei Spînu.

On Jurnal TV’s “Secrets of Power” programme on 2 November 2022, the capital’s mayor, Ion Ceban, said that Minister Andrei Spînu and Moldovagaz director Vadim Ceban “together with some decision-makers from Gazprom have an agreement” on the price of natural gas.

“They are stealing from me, from you and from all the inhabitants of the municipality and the country, and I’ll give you the details on this (…) Gas consumption in the country is 1.2 billion cubic meters per year, per day – 5.7 million. cubic meters, with certain deviations in certain periods. (…) We go back to October, someone dominated and brought us in Moldova the highest price of gas in Europe. (…) There was noise, we do not need the surplus and we did not have a deficit. Ask Spînu who invented the scheme? We are embezzling millions of dollars,” Ceban said on Jurnal TV’s “Secrets of Power”.

At the time, Minister Andrei Spînu said he would take Mayor Ion Ceban to court “for deliberately telling serious lies with the intention of destabilising the situation in the country”. For his part, Moldovagaz chief Vadim Ceban said he was surprised by the accusations against him: “Moldovagaz has always been open to constructive cooperation, has responded to requests and proposals from municipal authorities and will continue to do so”.