Former Moldovan Prime Minister Iurie Leanca is among eight people charged on May 2 in a corruption case over a concession that gave control of the country's main airport to a company associated with businessman and politician Ilan Shor, who fled Moldova in 2019 after the election of pro-Western President Maia Sandu.
The Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office announced the abuse-of-power charge against Leanca, saying former Economy Minister Valeriu Lazar, former director of the Public Property Agency (APP) Tudor Copaci, and five other former officials face similar charges in the criminal case.
All the accused pleaded not guilty, said Veronica Dragalin, head of Moldova's Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office, at a news conference in Chisinau. They face between four and eight years in prison if convicted.
The 2013 concession handed control of Chisinau International Airport for a 49-year term to a company associated with Shor, who has lived abroad since he left the country in 2019 following fraud and money-laundering convictions.
The Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office said damages to the state were more than 392 million lei ($21.8 million).
Other defendants are the interim general director of the airport, Petru Jardan; the former deputy director of APP, Angela Susanu; another official within the APP, Maria Sendila; the former financial director of the airport, Alexandru Ciutac; and head of the economic analysis service of airport, Alla Tubari.
The prosecutor's office said in a statement that the accused issued the concession in 2013 in the interest of a "criminal group" and "criminal organization."
Prosecutors say Leanca was to receive money from Shor and would have benefited from flights with private planes paid for by Shor.
Leanca, 59, has held several high-level political positions representing the Liberal Democratic Party of Moldova (PLDM). He was deputy prime minister and foreign minister from 2009-13 before becoming prime minister in 2013 and serving through 2015.
After leaving the PLDM, he created a new "political project" and ran unsuccessfully in the European Parliament elections on the list of a Romanian party.
As part of the investigation, the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office and the Agency for the Recovery of Criminal Assets seized the assets and capital of Avia Invest, the former company granted the concession to run the airport. Defendants' assets, including those from abroad, also were seized.
Chisinau International Airport returned to state ownership on March 27 based on a decision of the Chisinau Court of Appeal. Avia Invest had been accused of not making the promised investments in the development of the airport.
Avia Invest has said it would sue the government over the transfer of the airport to state management.
The return of the airport to the state management was welcomed by Sandu and other Moldovan leaders as an important result in the fight against corruption.