The Chișinău Court of Appeal upheld the decision of the Chișinău Court, Centru office, which had rejected as unfounded the request submitted by former Romanian MP Cristian Rizea. He is seeking the annulment of the Presidential Decree that revoked his Moldovan citizenship. He now has only one remaining option for appeal — the Supreme Court of Justice (SCJ). Extradited in April 2023, Rizea is currently serving his sentence for corruption-related offenses in his country of origin, but he is also involved in several ongoing cases in Moldovan courts, most of which are contraventional. Journalists from the Center for Investigative Journalism (CIJM) uncovered the luxury in which Rizea lived in Chișinău after being convicted in Romania for corruption and fleeing to the Republic of Moldova. Another investigation revealed how he managed to live extravagantly using borrowed money.

Cristian Rizea was extradited to Romanian authorities on the evening of April 27, 2023. He was taken into custody by Romanian police and placed in a penitentiary.

Rizea fled to Chișinău in 2017, one month before he was sentenced by the first court to 4 years and 8 months in prison for corruption-related actions.

The former Romanian politician became widely known to the Moldovan public in the spring of 2021, when he launched a political campaign with the NOI party. Later, he began recording and distributing so-called "revelations" on social media, for which he was repeatedly denounced for defamation.

Cristian Rizea was the subject of a CIJM investigation into how he purchased a luxury property in an upscale neighborhood of Chișinău. In an interview given during the investigation, Rizea stated that he had obtained Moldovan citizenship because his grandmother was originally from the village of Congaz, Comrat district.

Rizea served as an MP for the Social Democratic Party (PSD) in Romania between 2008 and 2016, after holding various positions: head of cabinet to Youth Minister Georgiu Gingăraș in Adrian Năstase’s government in 2000, and general director of the National Agency for Supporting Youth Initiatives — from 2002 to 2006.

The most important position he held in the party was that of Executive Secretary (2010–2013), followed by that of President of Sector 5 in Bucharest. In March 2016, a few months before the local elections, the National Anticorruption Directorate (DNA) requested approval for the detention and arrest of the MP on suspicion of influence peddling, money laundering, and witness tampering.

The DNA requested a 7-year sentence for Rizea. In 2019, the High Court of Cassation and Justice issued a final sentence of 4 years and 8 months in prison. Two years earlier, during the investigation and trial, Rizea obtained citizenship of the Republic of Moldova.

In May 2019, the Romanian Ministry of Justice requested his extradition from the Moldovan authorities. The Moldovan Ministry of Justice responded by informing the Romanian authorities that extradition could not be initiated because Cristian Rizea was also a Moldovan citizen.

In the fall of 2020, Igor Dodon revoked Rizea’s Moldovan citizenship, but Rizea challenged the presidential decree in court.