A son of former Moldovan President Petru Lucinschi, Chiril Lucinschi, has been sentenced to 5 1/2 years in prison on corruption charges that he says are trumped up.
A court in Chisinau sentenced Chiril Lucinschi on April 4, after convicting him of money laundering. It also fined him 27,500 leus ($1,600).
Lucinschi was detained in May 2017, days after he publicly abandoned his mandate as a lawmaker.
The charges against him are linked to a high-profile $1 billion bank fraud involving three major Moldovan banks -- Banca de Economii, Banca Sociala, and Unibank.
Lucinschi has maintained his innocence and called the case against him politically motivated.
Petru Lucinschi was Moldova's second post-Soviet president, holding the top office in the economically struggling country of 3.5 million from 1997 to 2001.
