The leader of Gagauzia, Eugenia Gutsul, has been sentenced to seven years in prison for financial crimes carried out on Moscow’s orders during the election campaign. The court ruled that Gutsul, along with the secretary of the now-banned pro-Russian “Shor” party, Svetlana Popan, illegally financed the party from 2019 to 2022, reports Baltimore Chronicle, citing NewsMaker.
According to the verdict, Gutsul was sentenced to 7 years in a semi-closed prison regime. Additionally, she is ordered to repay the state 40 million lei (approximately 2.35 million USD), which, according to the investigation, were used to illegally finance the party. Svetlana Popan was sentenced to 6 years in prison, and her confiscated funds amount to 9 million lei (about 530,000 USD).
After the verdict was announced, Gutsul’s supporters organized a protest outside the courthouse. However, both Gutsul and Popan denied the charges, accusing the Moldovan authorities of political repression. This ruling is from the first instance court, and the case is likely to go through a lengthy appeals process.
Earlier we wrote that hungarian PM Orbán criticized Zelensky’s decisions on the war.