Former Moldovan President Igor Dodon, who is accused of committing the crime of passive bribery, organising and accepting political party funding from a “criminal organisation”, has been allowed to leave the country. The Supreme Court of Justice (CSJ) granted the former head of state’s request to leave for Romania. The information was confirmed to ZdG by anti-corruption prosecutor Petru Iarmaliuc.

“At the court hearing, a request was submitted requesting permission for Igor Dodon to leave the territory of the Republic of Moldova for the period January 28-February 5 in order to accompany his minor son, together with his wife – who is also a defendant of the PA, in order to receive certain treatment services in Romania (…) Annexed to the request were submitted some documents, copies, medical extracts indicating the state of health of the defendant Igor Dodon and his minor child. I indicated that these copies and documents are not sufficient and it is necessary to verify the authenticity and veracity of the data in these documents by hearing the person who prepared them. The doctor should appear in court and say why he cannot undergo treatment in Moldova. It says “rehabilitation”, not that the person’s health is serious. So there are no exceptional personal circumstances of the defendant.

(…) He may interact with certain persons who are targeted in the case, or he may take other actions that could impede the proper conduct of the criminal proceedings. Even now, they have again submitted a request for the panel to be recused. We already have six requests for recusal, i.e. six court hearings have not been held on the grounds of recusal of the judges, and four times they have requested recusal of the prosecutor,” the prosecutor said.

Lawyers for the former socialist president have again requested the recusal of the trial panel on the grounds that he is “vulnerable”.

On Monday 6 January, the judges of the CSJ granted the prosecutor’s request to extend the term of the preventive measure – an order not to leave the country for another 60 days – against Igor Dodon.

At the same time, the request submitted by Igor Dodon’s lawyers to challenge the panel of judges examining the case was rejected as unfounded, the press service of the Anticorruption Prosecutor’s Office told Ziarul de Gardă.

Igor Dodon was released from house arrest by a decision of the Supreme Court of Justice (CSJ) on 18 November. The former head of state was then placed under judicial control for 60 days and banned from leaving the country.

In the so-called “kuliok” case, the former president of Moldova is accused of having demanded almost one million dollars from Vladimir Plahotniuc and Sergei Yaralov in order to negotiate with the Russian Federation, and in the “Energocom” case, the former president is accused of exceeding his official duties.

Igor Dodon was detained on 24 May after anti-corruption prosecutors carried out ten raids for more than ten hours at several locations owned by Dodon and his relatives.

Dodon is the first head of state to be tried for a crime committed while in office. For this reason, the case was referred directly to the CSJ which by law is competent to try criminal cases involving offences committed by a head of state at first instance.

Igor Dodon says he does not understand why he is being charged, but declares himself innocent. “This case will be handed over to law faculties”. Report from the court hearing in the “kuliok” case
The criminal prosecution in the case generically referred to as “kuliok” was resumed on 18 May 2022, a day after the Chisinau CA overturned in full the decision of the Chisinau Ciocana district court to uphold the previously issued order of non-prosecution against the former president of Moldova. The case is based on a video footage of a meeting between Igor Dodon, Vladimir Plahotniuc and Serghei Iaralov in June 2019, in which the PDM leader is seen giving Dodon a black bag in which it was speculated there was money. In that recording, Igor Dodon tells Plahotniuc not to “walk around with his asses” and to pass the bag to Cornel (supposedly Corneliu Forks, editor’s note), because he was going to pay certain salaries. Plahotniuc then told Iaralov to give the money to Costea (supposedly Constantin Botnari, editor’s note) to pass on to Cornel.

The video footage, published by former MP Iurie Renita, is a continuation of the video recording of the meeting of the three in June 2019, when Dodon declared that he receives monthly money from the Russian Federation to finance the PSRM. Later, Dodon publicly stated that he had played a role in those discussions, with the aim of ousting Plahotniuc from government.

Igor Dodon was suspected of illicit enrichment, passive bribery, accepting the financing of the political party by a criminal organisation and treason against the Motherland.