Moldovan envoy in Portugal denies illegal immigration links
The Moldovan ambassador in Portugal, Mihail Camerzan, told Diario de Noticias that he regretted that the Public Prosecutor's Office (MP) had not asked for the embassy's help in the investigation into a people trafficking network. If it had done so, all suspicions of corruption and falsification of documents against him would have been allayed.
He recalled that he had written a letter to Attorney-General Pinto Monteiro informing him of suspicions relating to an individual who has since been charged in the case.
The Lisbon Investigation and Penal Action Department (DIAP) concluded and investigation into an illegal immigration network, allegedly headed by Moldovan citizens. Twenty-eight people have been charged. The Public Prosecutor's document accuses the ambassador and three former diplomats of corruption, falsification of documents and aiding illegal immigration.
Mihail Camerzan denies he has ever committed any crime. "We were willing to cooperate" he told Diario de Noticias, adding that the embassy had used Dorina Tintuic's (the main defendant in the case) translation services, as a necessity: "There are only five of us at the embassy to deal with thousands of citizens. We had to use an external service," the ambassador said.
"We have always wanted to cooperate and it was not diplomatic immunity which prevented the Portuguese authorities from contacting us," he concluded. The ambassador ends his mission in Portugal this week.
After the charges are made public, the Moldovan embassy will - according to the ambassador - ask for a number of case documents via the Foreign Ministry. "It is obvious that we are concerned about the issue of people trafficking. It is an international problem and we are always ready to cooperate with the authorities of each country," the ambassador said.
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