Mihai Ghimpu, Veaceslav Ionita tell each other to renounce immunity

The Law on the Licensing of Entrepreneurial Activities, known as the Casino Law, aroused again heated debates in Parliament. The Liberal Party head Mihai Ghimpu said he will demand that the parliamentary immunity of the Liberal-Democrat lawmaker Veaceslav Ionita be lifted. Ionita replied that Mihai Ghimpu should voluntarily renounce the immunity and not hide behind it, Info-Prim Neo reports. “It is time that we reach a conclusion as to the ‘Las Vegas commission’ and the casinos. I request that the commission convene. If need be, I will also attend the meeting. I have evidence and demand that the commission present a report. Everyone asks me why I did not make the information public earlier. If I had made it known during the election campaign, the ruling alliance would have been dismembered. No matter what the commission says, I will ask the Prosecutor’s Office to investigate the case and, if it decides to deprive me of immunity, I will accept without putting the issue to the vote in Parliament. But Ionita’s immunity should be also lifted,” Mihai Ghimpu said in Thursday’s sitting of the legislature. In reply, Veaceslav Ionita advised Mihai Ghimpu not to hide behind the immunity and renounce it of his own accord. After the exchange of replies, the MPs decided to return to the issue towards the end of the sitting. Mihai Ghimpu accuses Veaceslav Ionita of illegally including an amendment allowing reducing the tax for a casino table from 360,000 to 180,000 lei in the law after the bill was passed in final reading. The damage caused to the state budget as a result of such an act was assessed at 5.6 million lei. In February, the MPs voted in favor of restoring the old tax.