He had studied law at the State University of Moldova and upon graduation he got hired at the municipal prosecution office in Chisinau, the capital, first as a deputy to the chief prosecutor, then as a prosecutor, and later as a senior prosecutor employed in the Section for General Surveillance. He didn’t stay long in the capital and accepted a prosecutor’s job in the Gagauzian autonomy. In 2001 though Mr. Stoianoglo returned to Chisinau as a deputy of the prosecutor-general. The government gave his family a four-room apartment which the prosecutor privatized two years later.

In 2007, his mandate ended and Alexandr Stoianoglo withdrew from public life to work in his own law office. Two years later the succeeded in the parliamentary election as part of the Democratic Party (PDM) candidate list and occupied the seat of deputy speaker. After the anticipated elections in November 2010 he maintained a place in the legislative body on behalf of the same faction.

He didn’t run for a new mandate in the 2014 elections and in 2015 he competed for the post of governor of the Gagauzian autonomy. There he captured only 3,174 votes (4.98%) and emerged the sixth among ten candidates. For four years he acted as a consultant and expert at the Crisis Management Initiative, a Finnish conflict resolution and mediation organization.

In 2019 Alexandr Stoianoglo competed for the post of Moldova’s prosecutor-general and the High Council of Prosecutors selected him as the winning candidate. President Igor Dodon approved him in office by an executive decree. Stoianoglo’s election to the top prosecuting job was preceded by a public scandal around.

In summer 2019 the Socialists and ACUM bloc (Action and Solidarity Party & Dignity and Truth Platform) joined forces to seize power from the Democrats and then Prosecutor-General Eduard Harunjen quit the post in response to an investigation (Ministry of Interceptions) published by RISE Moldova about the authorities’ tapping operations on civil society leaders, opposition figures, and journalists.

A new public contest was held. At first, a Justice Ministry panel seeds off most of 20 candidates and left only four names in the shortlist, including Stoianoglo. The High Council of Prosecutors was expected to interview the four finalists but criticism mounted around the evaluation methods. Then Justice Minister Olesea Stamate announced that the procedure was corrupted and the contest would be canceled.


Meanwhile the government led by Maia Sandu, an ACUM leader, assumed full responsibility for the appointment of a prosecutor-general and asked the Parliament to support a bill that would let the prime minister craft the shortlist. Instead, the Socialists - backed by Democrats - filed for a no-confidence motion and sacked the government. The new justice minister, Fadei Nagacevschi, returned to the four-name shortlist and this way Mr. Stoianoglo took over as the country’s top prosecutor.