According to Ilie Chitoroaga, an investigator of the Moldovan Prosecutor General's Office, the Buiucan district court of the Moldovan capital may take decision on Thursday to hold the girls in custody for another 30 days.
The Romashchenko sisters were arrested in February as part of a group comprising citizens of Russia, Kazakhstan and Ukraine. The Moldovan authorities accused the sisters of "violating the procedure of staying in Moldova and of participation in the illegal election campaign" (parliamentary elections were held in Moldova on March 6).
All other members of the group were extradited from the country, while the sisters were charged with holding a large sum of money undeclared (more than $500,000).
"It was qualified as smuggling, though later the charge was changed to money laundering," Mr. Chitoroaga specified. He explained that there was a reference mark of a Chisinau bank on the money packages that denoted that the money was transferred to a legal entity. "But the currency fell into the hands of private persons, in a way that has not been established yet," he added.
According to Alexander Kladko, a prosecutor of the Moldovan Prosecutor General's Office, the Romashchenko sisters will most probably be kept for an extended term because of the evidence gathered by the investigation.
