CHISINAU, December 26 (Itar-Tass) – Former deputy chief of Moldova’s Security Services, Ruslan Turcanu has been sentenced to three years in jail for illegal bugging of telephones.
A sentence of the military tribunal that was read out Wednesday can be appealed by the lawyers representing Turcanu, whom the authorities have placed on a wanted list, within fifteen days.
A criminal case against Turcanu, who according to investigators may be hiding out abroad, was instituted last year by the Office of the Prosecutor General in connection with the facts pertaining to the abuse of occupational powers and encroachments on the rights of man.
Investigators have found out that the secret services bugged the telephone conversations of oppositionist politicians in 2008 and 2009. The list of these politicians included the incumbent President of the Constitution Court Alexandru Tanase, Chisinau Mayor Dorin Chirtoaca, Auditing Chamber chairman Serafim Urechean, and some other widely known names.
The Communist Party, which held the helm of power at the time, tried to knock up an agreement with the Liberals on appointing one of its leaders, Zinaida Greceanii, the country’s President.
The Moldovan television channel Publica that reported the information, said the bugging of telephones continued after the early parliamentary election, which pushed the Communists into the opposition and brought state power to the Liberal Democratic Alianta pentru Integrare Europeana /Alliance for European Integration/.
Last year, Moldova’s parliament passed a law that permits the bugging of telephones only in connection with criminal cases or upon authorization by the court.
Before adoption of the law, only a prosecutor’s resolution was needed to launch the bugging procedures.