Vitalie Pîrlog, ex-Moldovan prime minister accused of having helped fugitives in exchange, remains in arrest in France
Vitalie Pîrlog, former Moldovan Minister of Justice, accused of receiving bribes to delete Interpol and to give asylum to fugitive criminals, remains in preventive arrest in France. The Paris Court of Appeal has maintained the preventive measure, AFP announces citing judicial sources.
Vitalie Pîrlog remains in preventive arrest in France. Photo: Radio Chisinau
Vitalie Pîrlog, recently extradited to France, was arrested on July 23. The accusation requested this measure, invoking the risk of witnesses.
The court hearing took place with the closed doors, and a French prosecutor specialized in the financial field justified the request for arrest by the existence of a “risk of pressures or even corruption”. They are numerous, and many of them, abroad, have not been heard so far. Also, no other suspect involved in the scheme has been interrogated yet, writes Leparisien.fr.
Extracted last week in Paris, Vitalie Pîrlog, 51, was detained on June 15 in the United Arab Emirates, based on an international arrest warrant issued at the end of January 2025 by French authorities.
More serious offenses
Meanwhile, the Moldovan citizen has been charged for several crimes, including “Cheating in an organized group, the use of false administrative documents to ensure the impunity of an author of crime, trafficking of passive influence exercised by a foreign public agent, active corruption in a foreign public agent and hiding a criminal followed by authorities.”
His lawyers did not want to comment on this incarceration. However, one of them, Me Emmanuel Marsigny, said last Friday that “His client has never tried to flee justice, on the contrary.”without giving other details.
According to the first information in the investigation carried out by the Central Anticorruption Office (OCLCIFF), an international network that facilitated the deletion of the interpol red notifications in exchange for millions of dollars would have been set up.
Vitalie Pîrlog would also have helped some particularly dangerous criminals to obtain asylum in the Republic of Moldova, during the time he held the president of the Interpol File Control Commission (CCF), which would have led to the temporary suspension of red notifications issued on their behalf.
Ex-prime minister of justice and chief of spies from Chisinau
Previously, he was Minister of Justice, as well as held the position of head of the Information and Security Service (SIS) in the Republic of Moldova.
