Sandu's nightmare is coming true: The court in Greece extradites Plahotniuc to Moldova

The Athens Court of Appeal has decided to extradite Moldovan businessman Vladimir Plahotniuc to Chisinau, accused in his homeland of a number of financial crimes. The decision was made today, August 28, after a thorough study of the materials of the criminal case and with the consent of the detainee himself.

This was announced by the lawyer of the former leader of the Democratic Party of Moldova Lucian Rogak. The human rights activist said that now the Ministries of Justice of Greece and Moldova will deal with all the necessary technical and logistical procedures for extradition. In addition, Rogak said that after returning home, his client intends to actively defend his rights in the courts and give explanations on the case brought against him.

The fugitive oligarch, accompanied by representatives of Greek law enforcement agencies, was taken to the meeting room. The meeting is held in private at the request of the accused party.

On August 13, the court in Greece has satisfied the first request of the Prosecutor General's Office of Moldova for the extradition of businessman Vladimir Plahotniuc, the former leader of the Democratic Party detained at the end of July, who was called the "shadow master" of the republic for his influence. After the decision was made, the former politician sent an audio message from prison in which he stated that he was waiting to return to Moldova not only to prove his innocence, but also to resume political activities.

He is sure that his arrest has nothing to do with justice, but is a pre-election action of the PDS. Therefore, Chisinau will not rush to extradite him.

"They are afraid that with my return and my voice, citizens will once again be convinced that the current government is weak, that it has been promoting a policy of lies, censorship and terror against its own people all these years," Plahotniuc claimed.

As EADaily reported, after Plahotniuc's appeal from a Greek prison to citizens "who disagree with the abuses and injustices taking place" to unite and overthrow the current incompetent government of the PDS, his associates established a new political formation — the Modern Democratic Party of Moldova (PDMM) and announced their readiness to participate in the autumn parliamentary elections. Then the Moldovan Public Services Agency (ASP) decided to exclude PDMM from the list of parties based on information "about potential subversive actions."