Chaus Posted a Video Message: My Kidnapping Was in 2016, not Now, but

Former Ukrainian judge Nikolai Chaus appeared in a video posted on the Telegram channel, in which he says that everything is fine with him and that he is in a safe place. Chaus said he could not yet disclose his whereabouts, but expressed a desire to make some clarifications after everyone started talking about his abduction, unimedia.info reports. “I was kidnapped, not now, but in 2016,” Chaus said. Chaus also apologizes to his wife and children for hard times they have to go through. On April 3, the former Ukrainian judge Nikolai Chaus was reported to have been kidnapped. According to his lawyer Iulian Balan, Chaus was abducted by “a group of unknown armed men” in the center of Chisinau. The police opened a criminal case into the abduction and announced the arrest of the suspects. The Security Service of Ukraine also opened criminal proceedings on the Ukrainian ex-judge Nikolai Chaus's disappearance in Moldova. The Ukrainian judge has been in the Republic of Moldova since 2016, after the Ukrainian authorities accused him of accepting bribes in the amount of 150 thousand dollars. In 2017, Chaus applied to the Chisinau authorities for a political refugee status, but was refused. He now faces prison terms from 8 to 12 years in his home country.