​MOLDOVAN EX-MP IURIE BOLBOCEANU ARRESTED ON SUSPICION OF ESPIONAGE, HIGH TREASON

Former Moldovan MP Iurie Bolboceanu has been arrested on charges of espionage and high treason. Sources in the Prosecutor-General's Office have told Infotag that Bolboceanu was arrested last Friday evening, after law enforcers had searched his home.

The Prosecutor-General's Office (PGO) has not issued any official statement about the arrest of the former deputy, although the arrest warrant was signed by prosecutors.

According to the PGO, law enforcers had to search and arrest the former deputy in order to collect information about "ways of communication, mobile telephones, financing, etc. that could be useful during the criminal investigation". At the same time, the prosecutor's office did not say what items were seized during the search and whether the arrested deputy has the status of a suspect or an accused.

According to the PGO, this was done as part of a probe initiated in summer 2016 in line with Articles 337 and 338 of the Criminal Code (high treason and espionage).The case is being investigated by the prosecutor's office for fighting organized crime and special cases. Iurie Bolboceanu is suspected of having contacts with an aide to the military attache of the Russian embassy in Moldova, Aleksandr Grudin, and of submitting him some information. The two reportedly "used strict conspiracy measures" while meeting.

“Given the events in Ukraine, it cannot be ruled out that Russian secret services were participating in the organization or support of events aimed at the destabilization of the social and political situation in Moldova,” he document said.

According to it, the Moldovan Information and Security Service has also established that “Bolboceanu has relations with people interested in receiving state secrets, in particular in order to destabilize the public and political situation in the country”.

Iurie Bolboceanu was a deputy on the ticket of the [pro-European, ruling coalition member] Democratic Party in the previous parliament elected on November 25, 2010. In early March 2014, half a year before the parliament's mandate expired, Bolboceanu announced that he got disappointed with the Democratic Party and announced his withdrawal from the party and its parliamentary faction. He was one of the eight deputies who reportedly were proposed bribes to quit the then parliamentary majority, destabilize the situation in the country and call a snap parliamentary election.

The second day after Bolboceanu announced his decision to defect from the Democratic Party, policeman Vitalie Burlacu and model Irina Baglai were arrested on charges of trying to bribe deputies. According to prosecutor's office, the two proposed to deputies 250,000 dollars to defect from their parties. The criminal investigation lasted for over two years. In July 2017, Burlacu was sentenced to 11.7 years in prison, while Baglai received three years on probation. The court also ruled to confiscate 553,000 euros, 403,000 dollars and R490,000, as well as a Porsche Cayenne found during the criminal investigation.

Iurie Bolboceanu was not involved in politics after his deputy mandate expired in autumn 2014.