Multiple Dangerous Criminals Released in Amnesty Scandal
April 9, 2025
Over the last week one story has dominated the Moldovan press and rocked the PAS party and government. Today we’re going to focus on unpacking the ongoing amnesty law scandal and what it all means. We’ll be back soon with a Weekly Roundup that will check in on the fallout from Trump’s global trade war and other important stories.
Moldova Releases Dangerous Criminals Serving Life Sentences
Last week the news broke that 2 extremely dangerous criminals had been released from prison and were free men. They were not released by mistake but as a result of various legal maneuvers that ZdG now reports have resulted in at least 7 prisoners being released who were previously serving life sentences. In multiple cases these prisoners had been sentenced to death before having that sentence commuted when the country abolished the death penalty.
The story of how this happened involves an amnesty law promoted by PAS MP Olesea Stamate and passed by an overwhelming majority of parliament in March 2022. It also involves potential abuses of this law by officials within the justice system and by the administration of Moldova’s highest security prison - Penitentiary No. 17 in Rezina.
“Nenu” & “Babior”
Those are the criminal aliases of Alexandru Sinegur and Iurie Radulov respectively. Both were released from prison in March after having been sentenced to life in prison. Their stories, and just how dangerous these men are, brought public attention to the broader scandal of the releases.
A 2005 article from ZdG opens the story of Alexandru Sinegur as follows:
"In 2001, Alexandru Sinegur was arrested on suspicion that, together with other accomplices, he kidnapped a businessman from Odessa, who was held captive in a basement in Chisinau for six months, during which time the criminal group extorted $1.5 million from his family. The businessman was ultimately brutally murdered, not before being forced to dig his own grave in a vineyard near Chisinau."
His story reads like a horrific inditement of the lawlessness of the late 90s. In 2001 he was wanted to various murders in both Moldova and Ukraine when he was caught in Russia and extradited to Moldova. A judge promptly released him pending trial in a decision that was clearly not motivated by the facts of the case. He then went on to commit 2 more murders and organize a kidnapping of a man who has still not been found. He then organized his own kidnapping to throw the authorities off of his scent before going on to be involved in more contract killings, the assassination of a business leader and the suspected kidnapping of a government official.
He was released on parole on March 27, 2025.
Iurie Radulov (alias “Babior”) has no less colorful a history and was serving a life sentence for 10 murders and 11 attempted murders. He was released on March 10th 2025 and left the country on March 16th facing no travel restrictions.
How Did This Happen?
Back on March 31st, 2022 parliament adopted a bill on amnesty for prisoners in the 2nd reading. The bill was organized to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Moldova’s independence and provided for mechanisms to reduce the sentences of around 1,700 prisoners. It was passed with 59 votes from PAS, 19 from the Socialists and Communists and 1 from the then Shor Party. Taken together this represented an overwhelming majority of parliament and broad support from both the government and opposition.
The bill provided for the reduction of life sentences to sentences of 30 years if…
"there is no risk of recidivism as determined by a certified forensic psychologist” .
Following the passage of the bill, PAS MP and chair of the parliamentary legal committee Olesea Stamate proposed multiple amendments to the bill over the course of 2022. First, the requirement for a “certified forensic psychologist” was removed in order to allow prison psychologists, who may lack certain certifications, to make recommendations. Later the wording requiring “no risk of recidivism" was removed entirely.
In the case of Alexander Sinigur this created quite an opportunity. His lawyers first applied for amnesty in order to reduce his sentence to 30 years - this was granted. They then made a new application arguing that their client had served 20 years of his 30 year sentence and therefore he was eligible for parole - this was also granted. The administration of Penitentiary No. 17 claim that this was all done over their objections and that they did not consider him eligible for amnesty much less parole1.
Iurii Radulov’s case is slightly different. He did apply for amnesty but was rejected. What has raised eyebrows in Chisinau and then supercharged this scandal is the fact that Olesea Stamate’s father was the lawyer representing him both in the amnesty application and in his appeal of the rejection. Ultimately, Radulov retained different council and applied for parole under article 91 of the Criminal Code which provides the possibility of parole for those with life sentences who have already served 25 years. His parole was granted.
Blame Falls on Stamate
Following these revelations blame quickly fell on PAS MP Olesea Stamate for championing and passing the various amendments that made amnesty for dangerous criminals possible. Initially the government promised an investigation but very quickly PAS also identified Stamate as the source of the problem and chose to expel her from the political party saying:
"Through several consecutive, seemingly minor amendments to the law, lifers were given the opportunity to finally be released. In particular, these are the amendments of July 2022 and, especially, of November 2022. Both amendments were made through amendments, inserted in the context of the amendment of several laws. The amendment of July 2022 excluded the condition of demonstrating the absence of risk of recidivism for the application of amnesty to lifers. The amendment of November 2022 introduced the possibility of commuting life imprisonment to 30 years of imprisonment. Why was this needed? Because the initial term provided for in the amnesty law - that of reducing the term of sentence - did not apply to lifers. Therefore, the law was supplemented with the term "commutation", which allowed, at the first stage, to change the sentence of those sentenced to life imprisonment to a 30-year prison sentence. At the second stage – having the sentence reduced to 30 years of imprisonment, the prisoner could appeal to the provisions of art. 91 paragraph 4 letter d) of the Criminal Code, which allows the release from prison of prisoners who have served 2/3 of the term. These amendments were introduced by Olesea Stamate”
Stamate responded saying:
"I understand the decision of the PAS leadership to expel me from the party. I understand the political context and the harsh information attacks of recent days, directed both against the party and against me personally, especially in a difficult election year. I know the truth, and my soul is at peace: all my actions were correct and legal,"
She went on to stress that the personal attacks against her and her father were unfounded and that she believed that the fault lay in officials who granted the amnesty and parole not in the law itself.
In their investigations into the granting of amnesty ZdG looked at not only the men mentioned above but also of at least 5 other criminals serving life sentences as well as more who were in the process of applying for amnesty. They found that in each case Penitentiary No. 17’s administration recommended these criminals for release even when their terms in prison were marked by additional violence and poor history of discipline.
Prime Minister Recean has since demanded the resignation of head of the National Prison Administration Anatol Falca. He stated that:
“It is this institution that must take into account all the risks of releasing prisoners and not allow abuses”
Anatol Falca resigned without accepting blame saying that "I am an officer on duty. We do what the commander orders."
Stamate has not yet announced whether or not she plans to leave parliament or maintain her seat as an independent.
Containing the Fallout
In addition to efforts at laying blame for this scandal, various efforts are underway to try and halt further releases and return dangerous criminals to prison.
Alexander Sinigura has since be detained again by police and is back in custody. Police gave no details saying only that this was a different criminal case and that he was arrested on suspicion of murder2.
The Superior Council of Magistracy (SCM) has ordered a review of all amnesty cases involving life imprisonment and is investigating the process at Penitentiary No. 17. So far, they found that of the prisoners serving life terms there have been 77 requests for amnesty of which 15 have been accepted, 36 rejected and the rest are pending. Of those that were accepted 7 prisoners were released already. They are also reviewing the process of judges granting these motions as there are indications the in multiple cases judges first rejected the requests for amnesty or parole before circling back and changing their decisions.
The Prosecutor General has appealed to the Constitutional Court and asked for a stay of implementation of these amendments. He is requesting this based on the fact that “this amendment may endanger public safety” and is asking the court to consider whether they amendments were passed validly given that some were inserted into unrelated laws and therefore not consulted publicly.
Additionally, on April 7th parliament took action passing a law in 2 readings and without public consultations which clarifies the appropriate “interpretation” of the parts of the amnesty bill which apply to prisoners serving life sentences. This “interpretation law” clarifies that prisoners cannot simultaneously benefit from a sentence reduction and then the parole terms they would be eligible for if the reduced sentence had been theirs from the start. This law was swiftly promulgated by President Sandu.
Lawyers and legal experts have expressed doubt on the idea of an “interpretation” law because it implies a retroactive application.
Analysis: A Scandal No One Needs…
While the government and state agencies are engaged in a full-court-press to recapture criminals and figure out how to undo the legal damage, the political damage has been substantial. Olesea Stamate is out of PAS. She was once one of the most influential members of the party in parliament and is credited as being one of the key architects of the justice reform efforts that are underway. Overall, PAS and the government look awful as there is basically no worse public press than stories about how you intentionally (or accidentally) released a bunch of serial killers from prison (and in some cases lost them).
Legal experts have been quick to note that the idea of amnesty laws isn’t new or novel. governments use them frequently to clear out the prisons and attempt to correct for overly harsh past judgements. Stamate herself has since said that she was intent on making sure that the amnesty did apply to those with life sentences because the country still operated under the Soviet legal code until 2002. This code mandated harsh judgements for even relatively minor offenses and she believed that they should be subject to review. Meanwhile, parole for those facing life sentences is a requirement for all parties to the European Court of Human Rights and is considered a norm. So none of the intentions here were inherently bad… but the execution was disastrous.
This scandal will likely continue to play out for a while as the public tries to understand who is really to blame. Stamate and PAS have taken some blame for the amnesty itself - though attempts by the Socialists to attack the government have been somewhat blunted by the fact that they also voted for these amendments. Real questions remain about why Penitentiary No. 17 was promoting the release of these men. It’s one thing to say someone is eligible for parole. It’s entirely another for the parole board to release a series of people with a longer victim list than that of Hannibal Lector.
Justice in Moldova has long struggled with corrupt officials manipulating poorly written laws to their own ends. We don’t know exactly what happened here, but public perception is that this is a story people have heard before - and that is also no good for this government in an election year.
We’ll see how the fallout from this scandal develops in the weeks to come.
This statement is at odds with other information about the Prison’s recommendations which will be dealt with later in the article.
This is presumably another old murder which he had not previously been charged with. There has been no indication that he has committed a new murder since being let out. Often, serial killers are not tried in all of their murders because the state opts to save resources after they are put away forever. It underscores how dangerous this man was that there were options on the shelf for a new arrest.