Viorel Cernăuțeanu is the new head of the Moldovan Police
The police of the Republic of Moldova has a new chief, Viorel Cernăuțeanu. At its meeting on Wednesday, February 16, the government of Prime Minister Natalia Gavriliță accepted the resignation of Iurie Podarilov, who has been in office for only a few months, in September 2021, as head of the General Inspectorate of Police.
Chernivtsi, who is 41 years old, has until now been secretary of state at the Ministry of Interior. The reasons for Podarilov’s change have not been made public. Before taking over the police force, he headed the Anti-Trafficking Center and spent just over a year in prison following a bribery trial, which he said was “politically fabricated” and acquitted in 2019. Arriving at the head of the PGI in 2021, Podarilov was in the process with the institution he leads, demanding that he pay my salary for the period during which he was wrongfully imprisoned. He also sued the Ministry of Justice over the same case.
The PGI leadership has recently become the target of criticism, including because of allegations of police involvement in a pandemic ban. At a first press conference by numbers, on Wednesday, Viorel Cernăuțeanu promised to act “only in the spirit of the law”. “We will act promptly, quickly and safely,” the new IGP chief promised, speaking on behalf of police.