Prosecutor Demands a Nine-Year Prison Sentence for Bashkan Evghenia Gutul

The criminal case in which Gagauzian Bashkan Evghenia Gutul and secretary of the former Sor political party Svetlana Popan are accused of complicity in the illegal financing of the party and its rival in the elections has moved to the stage of court proceedings. The alleged offences relate to the period 2019-2022, when Evghenia Gutul worked as secretary of the monitoring, planning and control department of the banned Sor party. The prosecution alleges that during that period, she actively participated in the systematic importation into Moldova of significant amounts of undeclared money received from an organized criminal group, mainly from the Russian Federation. The money was allegedly delivered by air and land transport and then integrated into the party’s activities, according to protv.md. Under another charge, Gutul is accused of coordinating the activities of the Sor Party’s regional branches in several areas of the country in October-November 2022. She is accused of knowingly accepting party funding from an organized criminal group totaling approximately 42.5 million lei. Evghenia Gutul pleads not guilty to both charges. The verdict in the Bashkan case will be announced after the conclusion of the court proceedings.