Deputy Prosecutor General Ruslan Popov sued the Center for Investigative Journalism of Moldova (CIJM) for violating honor and dignity. At the beginning of this year, the CIJM made two journalistic investigations that revealed that the prosecutor has higher property than his budget salary and he would manage from the shadows the business registered in the name of his father, a retiree.

The journalists found out that CIJM is sued and the date of the trial, from the agenda made public by the Chisinau Court. CIJM was not officially summoned. Prosecutor Popov's complaint will be examined by Magistrate Rodica Berdilo, and the preliminary hearing is scheduled for June 9.

The CIJM does not know what the applicant's claims are, but assumes that they are related to two investigations published at the beginning of this year, concerning Ruslan Popov's property and his business which is registered in the name of his father, a retiree. The investigation into Ruslan Popov's property mentioned about the three-level house, valued by experts at at least two million lei, which the prosecutor included in his statement on property and personal interests at the price of 111,000 lei. The investigation also showed that, in 2014, Popov donated to his in-laws a plot of land on which they would soon build a construction of over 160 square meters. In the 2018 statement on property, Ruslan Popov said that in 2014, he borrowed 10,000 euros from his father-in-law, and  two years later, 50,000 euros from his mother-in-law, debts that he committed to pay within 20 year period. It's just that Ion Oprea died a few years ago.

The day after the investigation was published, the General Prosecutor's Office issued a press release stating that Ruslan Popov insisted that the properties referred to in the article, with the exception of the house and Hyundai Santa Fe cars, were not owned by him, but by his parents, together with his brother's family and his in-laws contributed as well. Under the document, the deputy prosecutor general insisted that his property was due to his in-laws from Ukraine, who moved to Milestii Mici a few years ago.

We remind you that the investigation and the press release of the General Prosecutor’s office published Ruslan Popov's statement, in which he claims that the business with the orchard and the refrigerator under construction does not belong to him. As Ruslan Popov insisted that his property was due to his in-laws from the village of Utkonosovka, Izmail district, Ukraine, the CIJM reporters were in the locality where they found that they lived a modest life.