Pasat case witnesses reaffirming former defense minister is innocent

Chisinau, December 16 ( INFOTAG ). Witnesses to the case of Moldova's former defense minister Valeriu Pasat keep on insisting he is innocent. On Monday, the court heard evidence given by ex-Prime Minister Ion Ciubuc and ex-Speaker of the Moldovan Parliament Dumitru Motpan.

Ion Ciubuc said, in particular, that in 1997, when the authorities were deciding on selling Moldovan MiG jet fighters and unused weapons, this republic "was in an extremely grave socio-economic situation. Disastrous floods, huge salary arrears owed to public sector employees exceeding 500 million lei and other problem promoted the Government to looking for extraordinary decisions to overcome the dramatic situation. The Cabinet then held a lot of meetings to tackle the problems".

According to Ciubuc, the then President Petru Lucinschi, and Parliament Chairman and himself were certainly aware of various proposals concerning the weapons and ammunition that were on the balance of the Moldovan armed forces then. Among those proposals, there were ones coming from some go-betweens. As it turned out later, those middlemen had North Korean and Iranian representatives standing behind them.

"In the summer of 1997, we were warned by the official Washington - in a delicate but unyielding form - about the inadmissibility of concluding transactions with dubious companies, and about the United States' readiness to consider offers about the aircraft", Ciubuc said.

He underlined, "There was no aircraft sale deal as such - it was a pecuniary compensation for the Moldovan Government's readiness to conclude a compromise agreement with the U.S. Government on not selling the MiGs to the countries of the so-called 'axis of evil'. So, we presume that 80 million US dollars for the MiGs, of which a half came in money and the other half in humanitarian assistance - was an adequate price for that period of time".

The ex-Premier particularly stressed that upon signing the agreement between the Governments of Moldova and the United States, this republic was admitted to various humanitarian programs run by the United States and international donors, including the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, and "only during my premiership, Moldova received up to US$200 million under various programs".

Ion Ciubuc stated that Valeriu Pasat had no right, so could not take an independent decision on the jet fighters or the "Uragan" ("Hurricane") multi-launch rocket systems. Therefore, that could only be done upon consent of the nation's commander-in-chief (president) and after a joint discussion in the government.

That evidence was backed by Dumitru Motpan, the then Chairman of the Moldovan Parliament, who said, "Valeriu Pasat cannot be blamed for anything. At that period, the Parliament adopted the 1997-2001 Privatization Program that included military objects and military equipment. Not a single Program item could be sold on the minister's own accord without the Cabinet's or President's blessing... As for the Uragans, President Petru Lucinschi himself wrote a "No Objection" resolution on the document, and signed it".

As Infotag has already reported, Valeriu Pasat was arrested at the Chisinau International Airport upon arrival from Moscow on March 11, 2005, i.e. only five days after Moldova had held a parliamentary election, and only 7 days after Pasat had taken floor at a Moscow congress of Moldovan gastarbeiters in Russia, when he severely criticized the ruling Moldovan Communist Party and its leader, Moldovan President Vladimir Voronin.

Pasat was put into custody, and shortly after that he heard charges put forward against him: abusing office when Minister of Defense by selling to the United States 21 unused MiG jet fighters, and to other buyers - unused missile systems. The General Prosecutor's Office maintained the weaponry was sold "too cheap", and, as a result, those transactions inflicted, allegedly, a US$55 million damage to the Moldovan State.

Pasat refuted all the accusations, claiming they were but a political reprisal by the Moldovan Communist authorities for his criticism at the gastarbeiters' congress. Nevertheless, the Sectorul Centru Court of Chisinau sentenced Pasat to 10 years in prison in January 2006.

Already the following month the General Prosecutor's Office brought new official charges against Pasat, this time on much graver Articles of the Criminal Code - an attempted seizure of the state power and preparation of a premeditated murder to promote the committing of another crime. In October 2006, the court reduced the 10-year sentence down to 5 years, recognizing that the accusations of selling the MiG jets "too cheap" remained unproven. He was released on July 9, 2007 as his case was eventually recognized as one falling under the 2004 Law on Amnesty passed by parliament on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the 1994 Constitution of the Republic of Moldova. On the same day, i.e. after 26 months in custody, he flew to Moscow.

Neither the prosecution nor the defense were satisfied with such an outcome, so they both lodged new claims. The prosecution demanded to cancel the verdict of not guilty with respect to Pasat, and the defense demanded to declare Pasat not guilty on all charges.

In late March 2008 the Supreme Court of Justice commenced examining the claims, and on April 2 it decided to send the Pasat case back to the Appeals Chamber for reconsideration. In plainer words, the Chamber is supposed to revise the entire case from the very beginning - to hear several dozen witnesses including foreign high-ranked officials, to hold parties' presentations and debates, to scrutinize the prosecution's arguments and the defense's demands, and so forth.

So, at the first sitting held last September 30, the Chamber drew up the list of witnesses to be heard within the framework of the case examination. The list includes former Moldovan Presidents Mircea Snegur and Petru Lucinschi, former Prime Ministers Ion Ciubuc and Dumitru Braghis, former Parliament Chairmen Dumitru Motpan and Dumitru Diacov, and other.

In 2005, the case was examined in the presence of Valeriu Pasat, who was under arrest then, and the hearings were held behind closed doors, as the statements could contain state secrets. This time, the Chamber has decided all sittings of this second marathon shall be open to the mass media. Pasat himself refuses to come to Chisinau.