Madalin NecsutuChisinauBIRNMay 5, 202311:32Police detained several people suspected of stealing goods intended for Ukrainian refugees, sparking a political firefight between the pro-Western government and the capital’s pro-Russian mayor.
Moldovan police found stolen goods destined for Ukranian refugees in raided locations in Chisinau. Photo: National Anticorruption Centre, CNA, the official website.
The National Anticorruption Centre, together with prosecutors and investigative officers, carried out 24 raids on Thursday, after which two employees of the General Directorate of Medical and Social Assistance of the Chisinau Municipal Council, including the head of the Health Directorate, Boris Gîlcă, were detained for 72 hours.
The detained persons, as well as others, are accused of stealing assets destined for Ukrainian refugees currently in Moldova.
Moldova hosts about 80,000 Ukrainian refugees, most of them women and children, and the country has received considerable funds from Western partners to host them.
As part of the criminal investigation, it was established that staff assigned to the Temporary Placement Centre for Refugees in Chisinau, CTPR, also stole aid.
They are accused of systematically embezzling food and non-food items, including large and small household appliances, furniture, bedding, etc., bought from external refugee funds.
The Mayor of Chisinau, Ion Ceban, condemned the police raids as a “show”, however, and demanded fairness. Ceban accused police of taking “political orders” from the ruling pro-European Action and Solidarity party, PAS.
“All the employees of the social system in Chisinau are on the front line, our colleagues, some of whom are being persecuted today […] Justice must not be done through Facebook and on television.
“Whoever is guilty must answer for it, but should not be harassed, and all kinds of deputies should not pronounce verdicts before the courts do,” Ceban wrote on Facebook on Friday.
But PAS leaders said it was vile to steal from refugees in wartime and accused the city’s pro-Russian mayor of institutionalised corruption.
“No excuses or victimisation, like ‘it’s a political attack’ from the Mayor of Ceban, will work anymore. Things are clear. Those who steal in such a situation must be punished,” said PAS deputy Radu Marian.
Moldova is the European country with the most refugees per capita, and its population has increased by about 4 per cent since the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Source link: balkaninsight.com
