Former MP Rizea, brought from Moldova to execute 4-year prison sentence

Former MP Cristian Rizea has been expelled from the Republic of Moldova and taken over by Romanian police, to be taken to a Romanian prison to serve a sentence of 4 years and 8 months received in 2019 in a corruption case.

"This evening, April 27, the Romanian Police was requested by the authorities of the Republic of Moldova to take over a 54-year-old man, against whom the Bucharest Court has issued a warrant for the execution of a prison sentence. He was taken over with the support of the Border Police and is to be placed in a penitentiary of the National Administration of Penitentiaries," the Romanian Police said on Thursday.

Also on Thursday, the General Inspectorate for Migration of the Republic of Moldova announced Rizea's expulsion and that he has been declared undesirable for a period of 15 years.

"The citizen of Romania, Rizea Cristian, has been declared by the General Inspectorate for Migration (IGM) to be inadmissible to the territory of the Republic of Moldova for a period of 15 years. In accordance with legal procedures, the foreigner was removed under escort from the national territory by specialist staff of the IGM. We remind you that declaring a foreigner as an undesirable person is an insurance measure, ordered against a foreigner who has carried out, is carrying out or in whose regard there are strong indications that he/she intends to carry out activities likely to endanger national security or public order. The measure in question shall be ordered by the competent authority for foreigners ex officio or at the proposal of other authorities with competence in the field of public order and national security that have data or solid indications in the sense indicated above," a press release from the IGM in the neighbouring country read.

Former MP Cristian Rizea was under international investigation by the Romanian authorities after he fled Romania to escape a 4-year and 8-month prison sentence for influence peddling, money laundering and influencing statements.

Rizea was sent to trial by the National Anticorruption Directorate (DNA) on charges that he directly demanded from businessman Lucian Coltea the sum of 300,000 euros, disguised as two fictitious loan contracts. The money was demanded in exchange for Rizea's promise, later fulfilled, that he would intervene at the Autonomous Administration of the State Patrimony Administration (RAAPPS) and at the Chiajna Town Hall in order to solve certain personal interests that the businessman had at the level of the two authorities.

Rizea is also accused that in December 2015, after the criminal investigation was launched, he approached two of the witnesses and asked them not to tell the truth to the prosecution. He promised the two that, if he became mayor of the 5th district of the capital, he would offer them free commercial space in the Cotroceni area to open a new clinic.