CHISINAU, October 13. /TASS/. Head of Moldova’s Gagauz autonomy Evghenia Gutsul says that prosecutors offered to drop the charges against her if she stepped down from her office.

"They made a straight-up offer: I vacate office - they close the case. This can be confirmed by witnesses that my defense was not allowed to bring to court," she said during a court session.

She recalled that former chief of the anti-corruption prosecutor’s office Veronica Dragalin and her deputy Vasile Plevan, approached her with the deal during her interrogation.

Earlier, Gutsul said that the authorities wanted her to discredit her fellow party mates in the Sor party who nominated her as Gagauzia’s head.

Gutsul’s relations with the Moldovan leadership became strained in 2023 after she won elections in the autonomy and proclaimed a course toward closer relations with Russia, criticizing Chisinau’s policy of confrontation with Moscow. Moldovan authorities tried to invalidate the election in Gagauzia, but the Gagauz parliament sided with Gutsul. Apart from that, a series of grass-roots rallies were held in her support. However, Moldovan President Maia Sandu refused to sign a document approving Gutsul as a government member, which is required to be done under the country’s laws.

On August 5, 2025, Gutsul was sentenced to seven years in prison on charges of illegal financing of the opposition party Sor. Apart from that, she was banned from being a member of any political party for five years and fined $2.4 million, the amount she allegedly took to finance her campaign. Her defense challenged the court ruling.