The chiefs of the Moldovan Prosecutor's Office and Intelligence Service (SIS) have shed more light as to the detention of the Moldovan consul to Istanbul, Veaceslav Filip, last night. 

They have said all the staff of the mission are suspected of complicity.

Eduard Harunjen and Mihai Balan have shown themselves puzzled with the fact that the Consulate used to issue traveling documents without properly checking the applicants. 

The heads of the two law-enforcing bodies have said the scheme was uncovered after Chisinau prosecutors investigated Arab nationals extorting money from fellow Arabs in Chisinau against documents allowing their entrance and stay in Moldova.

"We got information that corruption acts were done at that consulate by issuing documents.  Without safety rules, without observing international safety rules, the mission used to issue documents against money. Checked transmissions of money took place. The amounts rise hundreds of dollars,” acting general prosecutor Eduard Harunjen said.

SIS chief Mihai Balan says all the employees of the Consulate have been involved in graft acts:  "We have found all the staff from the Istanbul Consulate was involved in corruption. We consider the diplomats from Istanbul lost their vigilance and forgot they had been sent there to protect Moldova’s interests. The probed facts are out of common. I have repeatedly mentioned those actions from the Consulate from Istanbul favor certain elements with terror nuance."

The SIS director specifies the consul used to issue documents allowing entrance and stay in Moldova without merely getting interested in who were the people apply for such documents, under law. 

Balan says such irregularities take place in a couple of Moldovan diplomatic missions abroad, as investigations have already started against them. 

On hearing the news, the Foreign Ministry has called on media to keep in mind the presumption of innocence and has said it will cooperate with the detectives.