The family of MP Ion Butmalai, LDP, who was found dead in his house garage last week, do not believe it was a suicide.

 

The deputy’s 24-year-old son Ion stated at a news conference at Infotag today, “Dad had plans for the future. He was preparing a new political project for the 2015 local elections. He was a devoted Orthodox believer, so he just could not end his life in such a way. He was cold-bloodedly slaughtered”.

 

The young man recognized that deputy Ion Butmalai felt betrayed by his party comrades because the LDPM leadership refused to include him into the party ticket for the November 30 parliamentary elections.

 

“But he resigned himself to that betrayal, and was saying last several days that one should not eternally worry about that. My dad had big plans for developing his business, was going to spend the forthcoming winter vacations together with the family of his best friend – MP Alexandru Cimbriciuc. On the eve of the tragedy, he promised my mother to go on the following day to buy a good Christmas tree and a guitar for my younger brother. And to me, he promised financial assistance to let me go to the Netherlands for studying”, said Ion Butmalai Jr.

 

At the news conference, Ion told the press about a black file, which his father kept at home.

 

“He told me that the file contained compromising evidence against a number of Moldovan politicians, and that if he publishes the evidence, some politicians will spend the rest of their lives behind bars. I have never seen the documents in the black file. He never showed it to me. He only said he had accumulated the evidence while working as Secretary of the parliamentary Standing Committee for National Security, Defense and Public Order. After his murder, the file disappeared”, said the young Butmalai.

 

The son provided further details in favor of the assassination of his father.

 

“For instance, his T-shirt did not bear characteristic traces or smoke from a firearm shot, if made from a short distance like at a suicide. Also, the police found two cartridge cases on the floor, but did not find a second bullet. The pose he was found is evidence that my dad was first shot at, after which he was put up and leaned against the wall because he was found in a sitting position. Furthermore, the yard gate was wide open, though father demanded strictly to keep the gate closed and locked – always. Lately, this has become kind of an idee fixe. I strongly doubt that the prosecutors are investigating this case correctly”, said the young man, adding that the Butmalai family trust entirely in lawyer Anna Ursachi.

 

Anna Ursachi said at the news conference that certain Moldovan top officials have a relation to the parliamentarian’s death, including his former party boss Vlad Filat and First Deputy Chairman of the Democratic Party Vlad Plahotniuc, whom Ion Butmalai criticized sharply and often.

 

“Plahotniuc was blackmailing Filat demanding from him to exclude Ion Butmalai from the LDPM list of candidates for the November 30 elections. Filat fulfilled that order obediently. Butmalai was greatly upset about his expulsion, but I am convinced that this grief could not serve the reason for a suicide”, said lawyer Anna Ursachi.

 

She believes that the murderers were hunting after the man’s ‘black file’.

 

“Being the Secretary of the parliamentary Standing Committee for National Security, Defense and Public Order, he certainly had an access to confidential and even classified information, including data concerning first personalities of the Moldovan state. He used to collect such data, and promised to show me the contents of his black file one day. I think quite many people were afraid of publication of the file contents”, said the lawyer.