The Centru District Court today dropped all charges against ex-Chisinau mayor Serafim Urecheanu in the so-called Ambulances' Case, Info-Prim Neo reports. The acquittal verdict, read by the chair of the panel Judge Constantin Uratu and met with applause from the public, states that Urecheanu is cleared of the charges brought against him on grounds that his actions haven't met the constituent elements of a crime. The court started with hearing the representative for the City Council (CMC), who read a CMC letter that confirmed the observance of all legal standards by the mayor in procuring 40 ambulance vans from “Rumeon”. Moreover, the letter said that the solution negotiated by Urecheanu to pay for the vans in installments saved some $3.5 million which the city coffers would have lost had the mayor opted for a leasing agreement. In his final plea to the court, Urecheanu reiterated his innocence and complete observance with the CMC decisions. The agreement signed with Rumeon was submitted to the Government for approval which it ultimately get. The money was transferred in two installments by Chisinau's treasury to the Emergency Hospital for paying the supplier. “It's obviously a trumped-up case commissioned by the leadership of the country. For 1416 days I have been dragged through courts”, said Urecheanu. Later, the ex-mayor told reporters that the case originated on 30 July 2004 by order of Vladimir Voronin who instructed his enforcers to 'execute' him and his colleagues at the City Hall. Urecheanu also blames Voronin for the destruction of the Chisinau administration and denounces the president's intention to do the same to the traffic police. Urecheanu, currently an opposition leader, trusts that the battle for a fair and politically free judicial system will be won and the truth will triumph, as it happened today at the Centru District Court. He described the intention of the prosecution to challenge the verdict in an appellate court as a proof on the fact that the battle continues. Until the end of the year the European Court is due to examine the case of Urecheanu v. Moldova, lodged with ECHR in 2006 after a domestic court chaired by Judge Nadejda Mazur, for the first time in the history of independent Moldova, dared to defy the decision of the Supreme Court, which had ordered the end of proceedings against Urecheanu, and prolong the case. The disregard of a judgment pronounced by Moldova's highest court is a major abuse against human rights and the rule of law committed by the Prosecutor's Office and a lower court; that is why on 12 December 2006 it was decided to appeal to the European Court, Urecheanu concluded.