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High-ranking Moldova’s Democratic party members, supporters hurry to flee country — TV

Earlier, Moldovan President Igor Dodon said people close to the resigned Pavel Filip’s cabinet will try to flee the country to avoid prosecution for graft and usurping power

CHISINAU, June 15. /TASS/. Partners and prominent supporters of Moldova’s ruling-turned-opposition Democratic Party leave the country in a hurry on board private jets, the TV-8 channel reported on Friday night.

"Within the past few hours, several private jets took off from Chisinau. According to the flightradar24 portal, they are headed to Istanbul, Odessa, London, Moscow. One of them carried the family of businessman Ilan Shor, involved in the high-profile scandal over the withdrawal of one billion euro from the country’s banks. It is presumed that another aircraft carries Vladimir Plahotniuc - the Democratic Party leader, and some of his companions," the TV channel said.

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Moldovan president congratulates nation on victory 'over usurpers of power'

The Democratic Party did not comment on the report.

Earlier, Moldovan President Igor Dodon said people close to the resigned Pavel Filip’s cabinet will try to flee the country to avoid prosecution for graft and usurping power.

"I do not rule out that some senior members of the Democratic Party are will try to leave the country, because several private jets are ready at the airport. But this won’t save them, no matter where they hide, anyone can be found in the modern world," he told the RTR-Moldova TV station.

Moldovan Prime Minister Maia Sandu told reporters on Friday that Plahotniuc will be prosecuted for "usurping power" and other crimes. She also demanded immediate resignation of the country’s prosecutor general, Eduard Harunjen.

The protracted political crisis in Moldova is about to be resolved after the Democratic Party announced on Friday evening the resignation of the Filip cabinet and its decision to go into the opposition.

A source in the party told TASS earlier that the decision had been taken after a visit to the party’s office by US Ambassador to Chisinau Dereck Hogan. The party leaders, in his words, had never stopped to hope for Washington’s support in the confrontation with the president, parliament and the Sandu cabinet, but received none.

Political crisis in Moldova

Moldova’s parliament has been trying to establish the ruling coalition and form the government since the February elections. Only on June 8, the Party of Socialists supporting Moldovan President Igor Dodon finally managed to reach agreement with the pro-EU bloc Acum (Now) to oppose the Democratic Party led by oligarch Vladimir Plahotniuc, which controlled the former parliament and the cabinet. The leader of the Party of Socialists Zinaida Greceanii was elected the parliament’s speaker, and the government was formed with Maia Sandu, the leader of the Party of Action and Solidarity, a part of the Acum bloc, as the prime minister.

The Democratic Party refused to recognize the new government and filed a request with the Constitutional Court, which ruled that the parliament’s resolutions were illegitimate as the parliament had failed to form the government within a period of 90 days in conformity with law (from March 9 when the lawmakers received their mandates).

After that, the Constitutional Court authorized acting Prime Minister and member of the Democratic Party Pavel Filip to sign a decree on the parliament’s dissolution instead of the president.

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