AKIPRESS.COM - Former Moldovan prime minister Vlad Filat was detained in parliament on Thursday over the theft of $1 billion from the banking system, a crime that has led thousands to camp out in the capital in protest, reports Reuters.

Television footage showed Filat being handcuffed by masked officials from Moldova's anti-corruption bureau. Anti-government protesters had blocked the exits to the building for most of the day to prevent him leaving.

A spokesman for the anti-corruption office said Filat had been formally taken in for questioning. Under Moldovan law he can be held for 72 hours after which the court must make a decision on his status.

Filat denies any connection to the large fraud, which has weakened the former Soviet republic's currency and damaged living standards in what was already Europe's poorest country.

Filat, who heads the pro-European Liberal Democrat Party of Moldova (LDPM) and served as prime minister from 2009 to 2013, on Thursday protested his innocence. "This is just cheap show. I can prove my innocence in court," he told journalists.