Dragalin: The quoted messages were not received from the phones seized from Plato
At the height of the scandal in the justice sector, the head of the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office, Veronica Dragalin, gave some clarifications regarding the messages she received regarding Tatiana Raducanu.
The head of the Administration emphasized during the Secretele Puterii program on Jurnal TV that all messages were not received from the phones seized from Platon in 2016, reports jurnal.md
In this case, the messages were received by Dragalin in the first half of last month, after which the examination and the start of the criminal trial followed on the last day of April.
Although many were of the opinion that the series of SMS were received from phones confiscated 8 years ago, in 2016, from Vyacheslav Platon, Veronika Dragalin wanted to point out that this is not so.
“In order not to mislead the public, I want to set the record straight. The messages I cited are not from phones seized from Vyacheslav Platon in 2016. I repeat: these are not messages from three phones seized from Platon in 2016,” the head of the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office emphasized.
According to Veronica Dragalin, these messages had been in her possession since April 10, when she received an information note from the prosecutor in charge of the criminal case from which evidence had previously been taken. According to Dragalin, as soon as they arrived at the AP, she ensured the study of the relevant documents in order to begin the criminal trial on April 30.
Dragalin answered the question if she was 100 percent sure of the authenticity of the messages.
“I can’t say this one hundred percent, it’s difficult to come to such a conclusion. But from the context of the messages reviewed, there is a comparison of the events described in the discussion with information that is already available in the public space thanks to news portals that actively published information about certain circumstances in 2013 and 2014. For me personally, this is sufficient confirmation that these messages are not fictitious. But it is clear that we are at an early stage, we continue to investigate and further elaborate,” Dragalin noted.
Veronica Dragalin also motivated her decision to send a letter to people who did not complete the assessment procedure. She said she believed the step was necessary because the information raised the possibility that participants’ fundamental rights to a fair assessment had been violated.
“I believe that as a prosecutor, having such information, I am obliged to protect the rights recognized by the Constitution of the Republic of Moldova, the European Convention on Human Rights, and I considered it necessary to inform them,” said Veronica Dragalin.
At the same time, the head of the Administration also clarified that criminal proceedings have not been initiated against Tatiana Raducanu, but criminal proceedings are initiated on the basis of certain facts, on the basis of which these discussions are being investigated.
