The Moldovan legislation concerning the registration of ships and aircraft sailing under Moldova’s flag is outdated and contradictory. It does not meet the international requirements and allows violations that affect the country’s image. Related statements were made by Transport Prosecutor Gheorghe Nogai in a news conference, Info-Prim Neo reports. The prosecutor said that in accordance with the international law, any ship or plane that is representing a certain state is considered property of this state and is within its jurisdiction, no matter who owns the ship and where it is. Thus, Moldova is responsible for what’s happening to the ships that carry its flag. Though the United Nations Convention on Conditions for Registration of Ships bans the simultaneous registration of a ship in the maritime registers of two countries, the ship registration rules in Moldova allow temporarily including the ships in the register without erasing them from the register if another state. Therefore, the personnel of the ship that is registered simultaneously in different states can fly the flag of the state that suits them at a certain moment. Gheorghe Nogai said that such states as Iran and Iraq are banned from sailing in certain states. A case was reported this summer, when three Iranian vessels were registered in Moldova and could thus carry freely any load on board. “This fact affects the image of our state,” stressed the prosecutor. He also said that problems are also encountered in the area of civil aviation and in the registration of aircraft. “Under the law, a civil aircraft cannot be registered in Moldova if it was registered in another state. However, there were cases when the airplanes were included in the aircraft register of Moldova in the absence of documents showing that the plane was removed from the registers of other states,” stated Gheorghe Nogai. According to him, the imperfect legislation that regulates the registration of light and ultra-light aircraft allows the owners and users of such planes to exploit them in criminal activities. The Transport Prosecutor’s Office in 2011-2012 had sent four letters to the competent authorities, asking liquidating the violations committed when registering ships and taking measures to adjust the legislation.