Police remove opposition MP Tauber from Chisinau court proceedings

Chisinau, April 12 – The police forcibly expelled from the courtroom of the Chisinau Appeal Court (APC) deputy of the opposition Shor party Marina Tauber, the court considered the case of the leader of the political formation Ilan Shor.

On Wednesday, supporters and representatives of the “Shor” party staged a sit-in at the Agricultural Industries Complex, calling for a just ruling in the Shor case. The opposition rally was broadcast in real time on social media on the pages of the political force.

Tauber entered the courtroom, where she was to take part in the hearing, but the police kicked her out into the corridor, and then forcibly escorted her up the steps of the building. The deputy said she intends to file a complaint against the actions of the police. Tauber accused them of abuse of power.

Shor is a businessman and husband of the famous Russian singer Jasmine. In June 2017 he was sentenced to 7.5 years in prison for his participation in the bank fraud case, and Shor appealed the verdict, and he was banned from leaving Moldova. After the February 2019 elections, the head of the Shore Party became an MP, then left the country, after which he was stripped of his parliamentary immunity. The prosecutor’s office opened three criminal cases related to the politician’s departure, and he was put on the international wanted list. Despite this, during the early parliamentary elections in July 2021, Shor became an MP again and his immunity was restored. At the end of May, on the initiative of the Prosecutor General’s Office, Shore was again denied immunity due to suspicion of money laundering and fraud on a particularly large scale.

The Shore party has been organizing massive anti-government protests in Chişinău since last spring. The demonstrators were angered by the unprecedented increase in the price of gas, other energy sources, and food, as well as the high rates of inflation and the decline in living standards. The protesters accuse the authorities of failing to deal with the crisis, pointing to record inflation over the past 20 years, which in September reached 33.97% on an annual basis. For its part, the Moldovan authorities have repeatedly called for the liquidation of the Schor party, accusing it of illegal financing.