The lawyer for a German citizen says her client is unjustly investigated in a criminal case in Moldova within which he was unfoundedly arrested for several times. The European citizen has been persecuted by Moldovan investigation bodies for over 13 years, Angela Procopciuc stated in a news conference at IPN.
In an open letter addressed to Prosecutor General Alexandr Stoianoglo and the senior state authorities, the lawyer related that Friedrich Maier in 2003 was persuaded by a family from Moldova to become the fiduciary, nominal founder of a company. The German citizen started to have doubts that something was wrong when documents from the Moldovan authorities invoking facts about which he didn’t know came to his address in Germany. The beneficiary of the company from Moldova assured him he should not worry as those were only formalities.
Legal action was taken against Friedrich Maier in 2006 over appropriation in considerable amounts and falsification of official documents. Her client learned about this case in 2016. Also then, he learned that he was wanted. When he was vacationing in Bulgaria with his family, he was arrested by the local police as wanted. However, Bulgaria refused to extradite the German citizen to Moldova as there wasn’t presented reasonable evidence of the necessity of his arrest. Consequently, Friedrich Maier was set free. One year later, in 2017, while in Bosnia and Herzegovina on a service trip, he was again arrested within the same case, but was released as the Moldovan authorities could not provide the requested proving documents.
Angela Procopciuc said she challenged the putting of her client on the wanted list. An Interpol commission in France established that the German citizen was listed as wanted in 2009, based on an annulled arrest warrant, which is forbidden.
According to the lawyer, elementary rights of her client were violated in Moldova and the blame is borne by anticorruption prosecutors Viorel Morari and Dorin Compan and also by ex-Prosecutor General Eduard Harunjen.
By an open letter addressed to Prosecutor General Alexandr Stoianoglo and the senior state authorities, Angela Procopciuc asked that these should monitor the case of her client Friedrich Maier. The German citizen is now in his country and cannot leave it because he is wanted.
