Lawyer for SIS division head claims evidence against his client was fabricated

Lawyer Vsevolod Turcan says the criminal case opened against the head of the Security and Information Service's Operative-Technical Division has been made up. The prosecutors accuse the division head of ordering tapping the phones of several colleagues of his in the absence of an authorization from the judge, Info-Prim Neo reports. In a news conference on Tuesday, lawyer Vsevolod Turcan said there are persons who want to replace his client in his post with a person loyal to the country’s administration. In October 2009, he was dismissed for groundless reasons according to the lawyer, but was reinstated by a decision of the Court of Appeals of March 2010. “My client was intimidated psychologically and threatened by prosecutor Mihai Capatici. He was told that if he does not make statements against the former administration of the Security and Information Service, he will be accused of committing serious offenses and jailed. Thus, in order to avoid pressure, my client made the statements asked by prosecutor Capatici,” Vsevolod Turcan said. According to the lawyer, all the actions and decisions in this case were coordinated by Prosecutor General Valeriu Zubko, First Deputy Prosecutor General Andrei Pantea and the head of the Exceptional Cases Division Corneliu Bratunov. Vsevolod Turcan said he filed a complained to Acting President Mihai Ghimpu and Prime Minister Vlad Filat against the mentioned persons. “I think they should be suspended from posts or they should resign,” he added. Contacted by Info-Prim Neo, Andrei Pantea denied the accusations made by the lawyer. “He formulated a defense version and promotes it. It is for the first time that I see such a case, when a SIS officer taps the phones of his colleagues,” he said. The head of the Security and Information Service's Operative-Technical Division was suspended from post and banned from leaving the country. His name is not revealed in order not to affect the investigation.