Former Interior Minister Alexandru Jizdan was indicted in December 2022 “in the Petic episode”. He is accused of acting as an organizer in the commission of several crimes. At the same time, the Prosecutor’s Office for Combating Organised Crime and Special Cases (PCCOCS) challenged in October at the Chisinau Court of Appeal the annulment of the order to initiate criminal proceedings in the illicit enrichment case. However, the Court of Appeal has not yet followed up on the PCCOCS prosecutor’s challenge.

The information was confirmed for ZdG by Emil Gaitur, spokesperson of the PCCOCS.

“He acted as an organizer in committing the crimes: abuse of office, filing false statements, inducement to file false statements, committing the crime of inviolability of privacy and false complaint. These charges were previously made and presented to him, although we did not announce them. In October, the PCCOCS challenged in the Court of Appeal an annulment of an order to start criminal proceedings that had been issued by the Chisinau Ciocana court against Jizdan on unlawful enrichment. So far, when these charges were brought in the Petic case, the Court of Appeal has not yet followed up on the prosecutor’s challenge. Therefore, the prosecutor has acted on the basis of Article 211 of the Code of Criminal Procedure which says that he has the right to decide on actions regarding the confidentiality of the criminal proceedings (…)“, said Emil Gaitur.

PCCOCS announced in June 2022 that it had assigned former Interior Minister Alexandru Jizdan the status of suspect in two criminal cases – false statements and illicit enrichment.

ZdG wrote in October 2021 that ex-minister Jizdan said that statements made by former Border Police General Inspectorate employee Gheorghe Petic, accusing him of having participated in the fabrication of the file in which Petic was accused of rape during his time as interior minister, were unfounded.

In a message posted on Facebook, Gheorghe Petic commented then on the detention of six former and current employees of the Ministry of Interior suspected of fabricating the file in which he was accused of rape and said that the former Minister of Interior Affairs, “Alexandru Jizdan, together with 100 employees of the former Directorate No. 5 were involved in forgery, interception and filming around the corner.”

In October 2021, six former and current employees of the Ministry of Interior were detained. They were suspected of fabricating the file in which former Border Police Inspectorate General employee Gheorghe Petic was accused of rape. Subsequently, the Intelligence and Security Service (SIS) published video footage which SIS representatives claim was captured at the time of the alleged rape of Gheorghe Petic.

Gheorghe Petic has been known for his harsh statements about smuggling allegedly involving people close to the former government, including decision-makers in the Border Police.

Subsequently, as the leader of the territorial organization of the DA Platform, former border policeman Gheorghe Petic was detained on October 12, 2018, after a call to the Single Number 112 from a resident of Ungheni asking for help and police intervention.

The person complained by phone that she had been physically assaulted and then raped in her own home. Subsequently, on 20 March 2019, Gheorghe Petic was sentenced by the first instance to three years and six months in prison for rape.

Throughout the time since his detention, Petic has denied the charges against him, stating that a political case had been brought against him.

After nine months of detention, on 19 July 2019, the trial panel of CA Chisinau decided to retry Petic’s case in the first instance, releasing the former border policeman from detention.

On 26 July 2019, under a decree signed by Andrei Năstase, the Minister of Interior at the time, the Special Operations Directorate of the National Investigation Inspectorate was disbanded.

According to Năstase, this directorate was founded in violation of the law and was a “political police”, being the instrument for tracking, intercepting and tailing those who dared to oppose the former government.