The Parliament of the Republic of Moldova [official website] stripped former prime minister Filat Vladimir [official profile] of immunity on Thursday and later detained him [AP report] on suspicion of involvement in a 2014 bank fraud scheme. The allegations suggest Filat was involved in the disappearance of up to USD $1.5 billion from three banks prior to the November 2014 elections. Of the 101 lawmakers, 79 voted to lift Filat’s immunity so he can be investigated. The action followed a string of protests outside Parliament of up to 2,000 people calling for an investigation into the missing money.

The effort to end corrupt practices of government officials in Eastern Europe continues to prove difficult. Neighboring country Romania is one of the most corrupt nations in the EU, ranking [TI profile] 69 out of the 175 nations globally according to the watchdog group Transparency International. In June Romania’s Superior Magistrates’ Council rejected 22 proposals [JURIST report] that would have made it harder to fight top-level corruption. The proposals, developed by the governing Social Democratic Party, would have changed the law to make it harder to arrest lawmakers for corruption-related offenses including conflict of interest. Also in June Romanian lawmakers rejected [JURIST report] a request from prosecutors to strip Prime Minister Victor Ponta of immunity, despite him being named as a suspect last week in an anti-corruption probe.