{"id":2095,"date":"2025-08-28T14:29:08","date_gmt":"2025-08-28T14:29:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.youtubexyoutube.com\/?p=2095"},"modified":"2025-08-29T13:46:30","modified_gmt":"2025-08-29T13:46:30","slug":"exiled-moldovan-politician-faces-extradition-ahead-of-key-election","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.youtubexyoutube.com\/index.php\/2025\/08\/28\/exiled-moldovan-politician-faces-extradition-ahead-of-key-election\/","title":{"rendered":"Exiled Moldovan politician faces extradition ahead of key election"},"content":{"rendered":"

Vladimir Plahotniuc had agreed to be repatriated as he seeks to challenge the government of Maia Sandu<\/strong><\/p>\n

A Greek court has approved Moldova\u2019s extradition request for Vladimir Plahotniuc, an exiled politician and businessman facing multiple charges in his home country, his lawyer confirmed Thursday.<\/p>\n

The 59-year-old fled Moldova in 2019 after his party lost power. He was arrested at Athens International Airport last month while attempting to travel to Dubai. He appeared in court in person this week to clear the way for a preliminary ruling issued in his absence in mid-August to be upheld.<\/p>\n

Plahotniuc\u2019s attorney, Lucian Rogac, said on Facebook that Greek authorities had granted his client\u2019s request to be sent to Moldova rather than Russia, where he has been wanted since 2017 for allegedly masterminding a failed assassination attempt on a banker.<\/p>\n

Plahotniuc has insisted he wants to return to his country to fight allegations of fraud, money laundering and participation in a criminal organization, as well as to challenge the government of Moldovan President Maia Sandu.<\/p>\n

\n Read more<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\n \"Former
US spent \u2018tens of millions\u2019 in Moldova \u2013 former USAID chief<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/blockquote>\n

He has accused Moldovan authorities of attempting to delay his extradition until after the September 28 parliamentary election, in which Sandu\u2019s ruling Party of Action and Solidarity (PAS) faces the possibility of losing its majority to an opposition bloc.<\/p>\n

Moldovan officials have denied interfering with the extradition, which still requires final approval from the justice ministries of both countries.<\/p>\n

Sandu has faced criticism at home for allegedly abusing power by attempting to weaken political opponents and gag opposition media while framing the moves as necessary to counter \u201cRussian influence\u201d<\/em> and safeguard Moldova\u2019s path toward European Union integration.<\/p>\n

Moscow has accused her of manipulating elections by restricting ballot access for Moldovans living abroad, particularly in Russia. Sandu won reelection last November by around a 180,000 vote margin. She lost the popular vote at home but was propelled to victory due to her strong backing from Moldovans in Western Europe and North America.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Vladimir Plahotniuc had agreed to be repatriated as he seeks to challenge the government of Maia Sandu A Greek court […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2097,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[11],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.youtubexyoutube.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2095"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.youtubexyoutube.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.youtubexyoutube.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.youtubexyoutube.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.youtubexyoutube.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2095"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.youtubexyoutube.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2095\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2099,"href":"http:\/\/www.youtubexyoutube.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2095\/revisions\/2099"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.youtubexyoutube.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2097"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.youtubexyoutube.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2095"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.youtubexyoutube.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2095"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.youtubexyoutube.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2095"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}