Gutul: I Will Not Renounce the Mandate of the Governor of Gagauzia

The Governor of Gagauzia, Evghenia Gutul, told the judges that she had never intended to flee the country, as it would have automatically meant renouncing her mandate as Governor. “Fleeing the country would mean that I am renouncing the mandate of Governor. I will not give up my mandate! I will continue to serve and work for the benefit of the Gagauz autonomy!” Earlier, the Deputy Head of the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office, Octavian Iachimovschi, stated that the Security and Intelligence Service (SIS) had received information indicating that Gutul did not plan to return to Moldova. “We received information from the Security and Intelligence Service, which, in our opinion, indicates that Evghenia Gutul was actually intending to evade the court proceedings in her case, and possibly also the new criminal case for which she was detained. What does ‘evade’ mean? It means leaving the country – that’s what we mean”. “Based on the information we received from the Security and Intelligence Service, we concluded that she was not planning to return”, the prosecutor said, adding that he did not know exactly where Gutul intended to go. The Buiucani court rejected the request of prosecutors, who had asked to imprison the governor of Gagauzia, Evghenia Gutul, for 30 days of arrest. Gutul is currently in pre-trial detention facility by the Ciocana Court decision, according to which she must remain in custody for 20 days.