Cricova reserve officers fight takeover of plot

A group reserve officers from Cricova town are complaining that judges are advantaging a company that wants to take 11 hectares from the town to the detriment of the local budget, Info-Prim Neo reports. Petru Nagalisov, head of the Reserve Officers Union in Cricova, said that the problem began in 2004, when the town hall rented 11 hectares to a company for building a commercial center. However, nothing has been built there since and the land was left vacant. According to the reserve officer, after lenghty lawsuits, the company managed to buy the land at no price and now demands damages of 8 million lei from the town hall. The deputy chair of the Union and local councilor Vladimir Postolache added that after renting the land, the company did everything possible to get the land at no price. “The courts are representing someone’s interests. Their cynicism has no limits. We ask Nicolae Timofti, Marian Lupu and Vlad Filat to help us”, said the councilor. Another local councilor and reserve officer Ion Ciutac accused the judges of being bribed by corrupt people who want to steal Cricova’s heritage. “We’re outraged by such misdoings. Our message must get to the top to stop this fraud”, he said, asking for a reversal of the court order. The head of the Union’s executive committee Nicolae Puscanean warned that people were ready to protest in the street against the “theft”. They might even go on to block the company’s access to the land. In 2004, the 11 hectares were rented to Venustas-Prim Ltd, which later became Ecotehlider. Initially, the land was offered for the construction of a supermarket. In 2005, the Cricova town council decided to terminate the contract to be able to sell the land. After a series of lawsuits, the town hall was forced to sell the land to the company for 112,000 lei. Afterward, the company mortgaged the land to Moldova Agroindbank for $12 million. Moreover, the company went to the Chisinau Economic Court and sued the town hall for 8 million lei in damages. The town hall appealed the decision at the Chisinau Court of Appeals.