Boar shooting crisis: Moldova has reportedly been dealing with a political crisis after politicians botched an attempt to cover up a fatal shooting accident during a wild boar hunt last year. The crisis ultimately caused the ousting of the country’s prime minister.
The country’s chief prosecutor, an appeal court judge, and others took part in the boar hunt when one of them discharged their gun and accidentally shot businessman Sorin Paciu. He died two days later on Christmas Day 2012.
No one has yet been charged in the case but an appeals court judge was suspended, according to Reuters. There were 32 people involved in the hunting party.
Prime Minister Vlad Filat slammed prosecutor general Valerii Zubco, who was taking part in the hunt, earlier this year. The hunt was also carried out illegally because it was in a nature reserve.
The Moldovan Interior Ministry started an investigation into the death in January. They found that the hunters also used illegal bullets during the trip.
“Moreover, not a single one of those 22 hunters, who knew what had actually happened [the hunting session included a total of 32 hunters], decided to report the event to the police as this is demanded by the law,” said Zubco at the time, according to AllMoldova.com.
Some of the blame over the cover-up has shifted to Filat in recent weeks. Some accused Filat of taking part in black-market cigarette smuggling. He was ousted in a parliamentary vote of no-confidence.
“I never expected things to degenerate to the point of taking down an entire government,” Filat wrote on his website, according to Reuters.
Liberal leader Mihai Ghimpu recently said that after the crisis, there is not clear path back to normalcy for Moldova.
“Filat will compromise the European integration of the country. With him, we won’t have anything good to take to the people in elections at the end of 2014,” he said, according to Reuters.
And on Monday, the country’s high court shot down an effort to install Filat as prime minister again.
