Former President of Gagauzia will serve eight years in prison
The Cahul Court of Appeal has reduced the sentence of Dmitri Constantinov, the former president of the People's Assembly of Gagauzia (APG), by four years. On Monday, August 17, the court sentenced him to eight years in a closed-type penitentiary, partially altering the sentence given by the Comrat Court at the end of the previous year.
Dmitri Constantinov was found guilty of abuse of office under Article 335, paragraph (5) of the Criminal Code. However, he was acquitted of a one-and-a-half-year prison sentence imposed under paragraph (1) of the same article due to the expiration of the statute of limitations.
Additionally, the Cahul Court of Appeal upheld the first-instance decision, ruling that the eight-year sentence will begin to run from the date of Constantinov's detention.
This decision is final but can be appealed to a higher court.
One member of the panel of judges in the Cahul Court of Appeal submitted a separate opinion regarding this case.
Dmitri Constantinov, the former President of the People's Assembly of Gagauzia, was sentenced to 12 years in prison by the Comrat Court for abuse of office and embezzlement. The sentence was delivered on December 26, 2025, while Constantinov was absent.
Prosecutors alleged that between 2017 and 2020, during his tenure as the director of a commercial company in Comrat, Constantinov authorized unjustified financial transfers to another entity where his son was employed, abusing his office in the process. The court also ordered him to pay damages exceeding 46 million lei and prohibited him from holding certain positions or engaging in specific activities for up to five years.
On November 14, 2025, about six weeks prior to his sentencing, Constantinov announced his resignation as President of the People's Assembly of Gagauzia, a move confirmed by the regional legislature on November 27. He cited health reasons for his resignation and dismissed claims of political pressure.
On February 9, 2026, Constantinov filed an appeal against his sentence. A few days later, on February 16, he released a video message on social media, describing the conviction as “an unjust decision” and calling for an “independent reassessment” of the case.
Constantinov contends that the case does not involve the embezzlement of public funds but rather constitutes an economic dispute between private entities. He also described the punishment as "disproportionate" and argued that the legal norms under which he was tried were declared unconstitutional in 2019.
Meanwhile, authorities suspected that Dmitri Constantinov had fled to the Transnistrian region to evade serving his sentence. At the end of May, he was removed from national surveillance, and in June, the authorities announced that he had been placed on Interpol's wanted list.
