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BISHOP MARCHEL REJECTS PROSECUTORS’ ACCUSATIONS

07 july, 2014
BISHOP MARCHEL REJECTS PROSECUTORS’ ACCUSATIONS

Marchel, the Bishop of Balti and Falesti, has resolutely dispelled accusations being put forward against him by prosecutors that he had allegedly exceeded his duties and instigated citizens to hatred and ethnic, racial and religious strife.     

At his news conference in Infotag today, the Bishop called the accusations “lies” and “a fruit of morbid imagination”.        

The Bishop’s reaction was conditioned by the media reports that the Prosecutor General’s Office had started a criminal action against him and Bashkan [Governor] of Gagauzia Mihail Formuzal. The criminal prosecution was demanded by MP Anna Gutu “for statements and actions undermining the country’s constitutional system”.       

The Office also maintained that Marchel had a direct relation to “the illicit referendum” held in the autonomous region of Gagauzia last February 2 [to ask citizens’ opinion about which vector the Republic of Moldova should choose for its further development – towards the European Union (1.5% ballots) or towards the Customs Union of Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan (98.5%)]. This “anti-constitutional case” involves also Gagauzia Popular Assembly deputy Ilya Uzun and Chairman of the Patriots of Moldova Party Mihai Garbuz.      

Bishop Marchel stated at the news conference in Infotag that he had learnt about the accusations against him only from mass media reports. By the present time, the Prosecutor General’s Office has not yet notified him officially about the investigation of the case which, according to the Office’s own press release, was launched as long ago as last February 9.    

“Why didn’t the Prosecutor General’s Office inform me about the case as is demanded by the law, and why has it started, together with MP Gutu, a libelous campaign against me and the Moldovan Orthodox Church? The answer lies on the surface:  the document was sent specially to those mass media outlets, which are controlled ‘democratically’ by the incumbent power regime. Such actions are a clear indication that this is a political order given by mighty people, who are promoting sodomization of the country”, stated the bishop.     

Marchel said that Mihail Formuzal and Mihai Garbuz phoned him on June 5 and asked for a meeting.     

“We met and discussed possible joint actions to celebrate the approaching 655th anniversary of the Moldovan statehood. On June 11, we discussed that preparation at a public conference in Chisinau, when we signed an agreement on cooperation in our joint preparation. We did not discuss the Gagauzia referendum, as the Prosecutor General’s Office maintains. I am an advocate of Moldova’s sovereignty and territorial integrity”, stated the bishop.         
 
Marchel said that he demanded from the Prosecutor, who sent a reply to MP Anna Gutu’s inquiry, “to name the concrete date and place of my committing the crime, which I am being charged of”.     

“I demand to provide me and the public with concrete evidence of how I was calling to an ethnic strife and hatred, and of how and when I abused my position. I demand from the Office to say concretely what criminal offense I have committed, what relation I have to the referendum in Gagauzia, during which citizens expressed their opinions voluntarily”, said Bishop Marchel.     

The priest stated that if the Office fails to present proofs of his fault, he reserves the constitutional right to address to the court and demand a refutation of the accusations.    

The bishop stated that the incumbent authorities want to remain in power at no matter what price, so they resort to an obvious barefaced lie.    

“Judging by the authorities’ accusations, last several years I have been busy doing nothing but disseminating an ethnic, racial and religious hatred. But as a matter of fact, this is precisely what the current authorities have been preoccupied above everything. They are thus trying to shut my mouth not to let me talk that Moldova is following a road of sin and sodomy. If the Prosecutor General’s Office had really proceeded from the Constitution, it must have initiated criminal actions against citizens Marian Lupu, Vlad Filat, Iurie Leanca, Anna Gutu and Adrian Candu and would have accused them of what is being incriminated to me. As a citizen of the country and a church official, I can’t help being an opponent to this anti-Christian regime”, stated Bishop of Balti and Falesti Marchel.     

 

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