Jevgenia Goetsoel, the pro-Russian governor of the South Moldovan autonomous Gagaezia region, has to go to prison for receiving and smuggling money from Russia between 2019 and 2022. With that money, her forbidden pro-Russian party ‘Shor’ was finished in Moldovia. It is also not allowed to hold public office for five years and the state is claiming forty million Romanian slate (7.8 million euros). That is what the court in the Moldavian capital Chisinau decided on Tuesday, writes The Romanian newspaper Evenimentul Zilei. The Public Prosecution Service of Moldova had demanded nine years in prison.
According to Goetsoels Advocaat and the Kremlin, the verdict is “politically motivated”. The Russians believe that Moldova is leaving its own democracy. Goetsoel was already on sanction lists of the United States and the European Union. More than a hundred supporters of Goetsoel called for the entrance to the court to release her immediately, reports Reuters news agency.
Moldavians go to the polls for the parliamentary elections in September. The convicted Goetsoel wanted to counteract the pro-European Moldovan President Maia Sandu, who wants Moldavia to become a member of the EU.
The court also condemns former Shor secretary Svetlana Popan for similar facts. She receives a prison sentence of six years, has to hand in 9 million Romanian slate (1.7 million euros) and is also not allowed to hold a public office for the time being.
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