Chisinau, October 26 (Infotag). Lawyers Alexandru Tanase and Genadie Tatar maintain that the criminal prosecution of their client, Deputy Chairman of the Social Democratic Party of Moldova Eduard Musuc, has no substantial ground under it.

Tanase told a news conference in Infotag today he was permitted to familiarize himself with the Musuc case documents only last Friday when his client was transferred to remand prison.

“I cannot understand till now what Mr. Musuc is being accused of. As can be seen from the papers, the Megadat company [headed by Musuc] bought a real estate from a commercial bank at an offered price, and not a single document of that transaction has ever been challenged by anybody. Therefore, there are no grounds even for a civil case, not to mention a criminal case”, the lawyer said.

He further held the Musuc family failed to collect 2 million lei (US$150 thousand), which sum the Appeals Chamber has set as a pledge for Musuc’s release from custody.

“This is the highest pledge size ever demanded in the independent Moldova’s history. This is something unthinkable. Compare: the State Budget allocations for the nation’s entire justice system were 30 million lei in 2005”, Tanase said.

He further held that the Supreme Magistracy Chamber has already initiated criminal proceedings against the judge who had determined this breathtaking pledge sum. Tanase offered yet another comparison: “Only shortly before that, this very judge set a pledge of only 80,000 lei for a suspect charged of trafficking in human beings, against whom thirty-three criminal actions had been initiated. Can such a judge be fair and objective?”

The lawyers are completing preparation of an appeal by Eduard Musuc and his father Ion to the European Court of Human Rights.

The Musucs father and son are suspected of misappropriation of 2 million lei at operations with the real estate when they used to head the Telecom Holding and the Megadat-Com companies. Earlier this year, 4 subpoenas were sent to Ion Musuc to appear in court, but seeing what was happening to his son, the father preferred to save his freedom, and disappeared. He is wanted by police now.