Ex-SIS deputy director, accused of treason in Romania, detained for 24 hours
Alexandru Bălan, the former deputy of the Republic of Moldova's intelligence service accused of leaking secret information to the Belarusian KGB, was detained for 24 hours, according to G4Media sources. He was questioned at DIICOT for about eight hours, G4Media writes.
The former deputy director of the Intelligence and Security Service (SIS), Alexandru Bălan, arrived for hearings at DIICOT on Tuesday morning.
DIICOT announced, in a statement sent on Monday, that a former member of the leadership of the Intelligence and Security Service of the Republic of Moldova had allegedly disclosed secret information to the Belarusian KGB, "under conditions likely to endanger Romania's national security". According to investigators, two meetings took place in Budapest.
Meanwhile, Poland detained a Belarusian agent on Monday in an operation carried out in cooperation with partner services from several European states, including Romania and the Czech Republic, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk announced on Tuesday on social networks, writes the romanian media.
Tusk announced the expulsion of a Belarusian diplomat, accused of supporting the “aggressive actions” of the Minsk services against Poland.
This is an operation in which the former deputy of the intelligence of the Republic of Moldova, Alexandru Bălan, was detained by DIICOT for leaking secret information to the Belarusian KGB. The Romanian Intelligence Service announced that it had “documented” a “case of treason”, in cooperation with foreign partners.
Also on Tuesday, Czech officials announced the expulsion of a Belarusian diplomat whom they accuse of espionage, the case being related to the one in which, in Romania, a former high-ranking official of the Intelligence and Security Service (SIS) of the Republic of Moldova is being investigated on suspicion of leaking secret information to the Belarusian KGB.
The incident in Poland occurs against the backdrop of escalating tensions between Warsaw and Minsk. On Thursday, Belarusian state television reported the detention of a young man born in 1998, resident of Krakow, in the town of Lepel (Vitebsk region). Belarusian authorities broadcast images of a KGB officer talking to him. According to the official account, the man – who is part of the clergy – allegedly admitted that he was on Belarusian territory to collect information about the Zapad military exercises.
Alexandru Bălan, detained on Tuesday, September 8, in Romania for collaborating with the Belarusian secret services, which are loyal to Moscow, was en route to the Western University of Timisoara, where he was scheduled to participate in a roundtable discussion and speak about the European path of the Republic of Moldova. In his last public interventions, Bălan spoke about infiltrations by Russian agents into institutions in the Republic of Moldova and took the side of Ukraine in the war with the Russian Federation.
The roundtable discussion on the theme "The pro-European path and the challenges of the future: the 2025 parliamentary elections in the Republic of Moldova" was to take place today, September 9, starting at 10:30 a.m., at the West University of Timișoara (UVT).
The event, announced by the Faculty of Governance and Communication Sciences at UVT and moderated by Dean Alexandru Jădăneanț, was to feature foreign policy expert Iulian Chifu, the rector of the State University of Moldova, Igor Șarov, UVT rector Gabriel Pirtea, and Alexandru Bălan, presented as a "security expert."
