Urechean to receive half a million as compensation for 'ambulance accusations'
The Prosecutor General's Office and the Center for Combating Economic Crimes and Corruption (CCECC) must repay to Moldova Noastră Alliance leader Serafim Urechean 500 thousand lei in compensation of the moral damage inflicted to him with the memorable scandalous 'ambulance case', the Sectorul Buiucani Court of Chisinau has ruled.
Before coming into active politics in 2005, Urechean had been a very successful Mayor of Chisinau for 11 years. In 2004, however, the then-Communist authorities accused him of exceeding authority and of breaching law at purchasing 40 Volkswagen Transporter T40 vans that were subsequently re-equipped into ambulances.
From the transaction's total sum of 23.3 million lei, 3.3 million lei was paid allegedly for help in finding a company to refurbish the vans and for control of the quality of the medical equipment installed aboard the vehicles.
The investigation maintained that those latter services had never been provided, and that ex-Mayor Serafim Urechean had thus inflicted a particularly heavy damage to public interests. He was charged against Article 185 (3) of the Criminal Code - abusing power by a high-ranked official. The entire litigation lasted several years, bringing no desired fruit to its organizers.
From the moment of hearing first accusations and until today, Serafim Urechean maintained that the 'ambulance case' was fabricated by the then-Communist authorities, who simply sought to eliminate a strong rival from the political arena.
Today, Serafim Urechean expressed satisfaction over the court judgment, though he had demanded a compensation of 5 million lei.
"The chief thing that matters here is certainly not the money but the very fact that I have eventually been pleaded not guilty and justified. Before the coming of democratic forces into power in 2009, it was just unthinkable to expect that anybody could ever win a case initiated by the Communist law enforcement. The very fact of my justification is evidence that the democratization process in Moldova has successfully started", presume Serafim Urechean.
He promised to use the compensation money for charity.
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