Interpol announces in international search the former deputy of the Democratic Party, Constantin Țuțu. The press officer of the General Inspectorate Police, Mariana Bețivu confirmed the information for ZdG. Previously, the Anticorruption Prosecutor’s Office investigated Țuțu for influence peddling. Țuțu and the former leader of the Democratic Party Vladimir Plahotniuc were also accused in a drug trafficking case in Russia. 

The name of the former deputy was included in the database of persons announced in international search after Moldova’s authorities made a request in this regard in September. Also in September, the Chișinău Court issued an arrest warrant for 30 days in default (absence unjustified when summoned by law enforcement bodies) on behalf of Constantin Ţuțu.

The former deputy is investigated on the basis of art. 326 Criminal Code, influence peddling, for allegedly taking and taking 20,000 euros from a man who was under arrest in the fall of 2017. 

Țuțu would have promised to influence the prosecutors and intervene for his release the one arrested. It is not yet clear why the case was only started now, two years after the acts were committed.

• Former Democrat Party Deputy Constantin Ţuțu, Prosecuted

On October 1, the former interim prosecutor general Dumitru Robu started the criminal prosecution on the fact of the illicit enrichment committed by the deputy Constantin Țuțu, between 2014 and 2018.

In June 2019, the Department of Investigation of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation (MVD) announced that Vladimir Plahotniuc and Constantin Ţuțu are being accused in absentia in a criminal case for drug trafficking through a “criminal organization” created between June and August 2012, led by Oleg Pruteanu and other persons from Moldova and Spain.

The Russian MVD claimed that Plahotniuc became a leader in the transnational drug syndicate no later than 2012 and “protected those who were part of it.” Plahotniuc’s “trusted man” – Constantin Ţuțu – supervised these activities, the press release said. 

• The Borman Case and the Absence of Țuțu and Plahotniuc Cases

In 2014-2018 Constantin Ţuțu was a deputy in the faction of the Democratic Party, a party led by Vladimir Plahotniuc. After the change of government, in June 2019, the deputy left Moldova.

Diana Gaţcan, gatcan.diana@gmail.com