Pasat refuses to make statements

Valeriu Pasat, the former Minister of Defense, refused to make statements over the legal cases opened against him in 2006, the Prosecutor General's Office says in a communique. The lawyer for Pasat, Janeta Hanganu, has told Info-Prim Neo that the former minister did not make statements as there was presented no evidence. Valeriu Pasat went to the Prosecutor's Office of Centru district on Friday in the afternoon as he is heard in two cases - attempt to usurp the state power by trying to murder the PPCD leader Iurie Rosca, and smuggling of weapons. Janeta Hanganu said that Pasat exercised the right not to make statements guaranteed by the Constitution of Moldova and the Penal Code. “The prosecutor is to collect evidence in continuation so as to confirm the guiltiness or non-guiltiness of Pasat. A legal case cannot be based on statements, but on proofs. They either exist or not,” she said. Janeta Hanganu specified that Valeriu Pasat pleads not guilty. The lawyer also said that Valeriu Pasat was heard in the two cases in May 2006, when he was charged. Then he also refused to make statements. “The prosecutor insisted that Valeriu Pasat come to hearings again as he probably considered that the circumstances have changed,” Hanganu said. Valeriu Pasat returned from Moscow to Chisinau on November 2, after the Moldovan authorities decided to renew his passport. Before the hearing, he told the reporters he was glad that the administration of the Prosecutor General's Office was replaced, but stressed those who investigate the cases remained in their posts. “Those who said I am guilty will maintain this position,” he said.