The Prosecutor appointed by the Superior Council of Prosecutors (CSP), Victor Furtuna, announced on Monday, October 17, that the criminal case against the suspended Prosecutor General Alexandr Stoianoglo, indicted on three counts, has been sent to trial with an indictment.

The examination of the criminal case on the merits will take place at the Buiucani Court in Chisinau.

More specifically, according to the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (PA), the suspended Prosecutor General is accused of committing the offences of:

abuse of office, committed in the interest of a “criminal organization, manifested by the release from detention of the convicted Veaceslav Platon and illegal waiver of the prosecution, as a result of which a damage in the amount of 869 224 839.76 lei was caused to the national public budget (art. 47, 327 para.(3) of the Criminal Code)”;
passive bribery, “manifested by receiving and accepting goods and advantages in any form not due to him from Veaceslav Platon, in the amount of 63 233 032.7 lei (art. 324 of the Criminal Code)”;false statements, characterized by intentional non-inclusion in the declaration of assets and personal interests of the fact that his wife, as of 05.01.2021 is one of the beneficial owners of a company registered in Ukraine (art. 352/1 paragraph (2) of the Criminal Code).

According to the PA, the criminal case was also sent to trial against two prosecutors of the Prosecutor’s Office for Combating Organized Crime and Special Cases (PCCOCS), who are accused of acting jointly and in concert with the suspended Prosecutor General in the release from detention of the convicted Veaceslav Platon and unlawfully dropping the charges (Art. 327 (3) of the Criminal Code).

“At the same time, we inform the public that the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office is still conducting criminal proceedings in two other criminal cases involving the suspended Prosecutor General, which relate to abuse of office committed as former chairman of the National Security, Defence and Public Order Committee of the Moldovan Parliament, as well as to his illicit enrichment,” a PA statement said.

In mid-September, the PA announced that it had terminated the prosecution of suspended Prosecutor General Alexandr Stoianoglo.

Alexandr Stoianoglo was detained on 5 October 2021. He is being investigated for passive bribery, false statements, abuse of office and exceeding official duties. The suspended head of the PG denies all charges and pleads not guilty.

On 23 May, after more than three hours of debate, the CSP approved the report of the Evaluation Commission and gave the suspended Prosecutor General Alexandr Stoianoglo an “unsatisfactory” rating.

The evaluation of Stoianoglo’s work was completed at the end of April and a report on his work was approved by the Evaluation Commission in early May. The members of the Evaluation Commission gave scores from 0 to 10 for each performance indicator attributed to Stoianoglo.