The case of manslaughter at the hunt late December attended by Moldova's senior judicial officials damaged the country's image abroad, Moldovan Foreign Minister Iurie Leanca said Tuesday.

"This case, in particular, how the State institutions addressed the case, their attitude, primarily affects the image of the Republic of Moldova," said the minister at a joint press conference with his visiting Norwegian counterpart Espen Barth Eide, according to news reaching here.

He stressed that the statements made by head of the EU Delegation to Moldova Dirk Schuebel and other ambassadors were relevant in this situation.

Dirk Schuebel said openly last week that future EU-Moldova relations would also depend on how the case of a man shot dead at the hunt, where senior officials participated, would be addressed.

Leanca regrets that the governmental and judiciary structures have shown some vulnerability in this situation.

"I hope very much that we will be able to draw the right conclusions starting with the political, legal and moral conclusions," the official concluded.

In recent days, the Moldovan media concentrated in reporting a scandal called huntgate.

According to local reports reaching here, Sorin Paciu, a 34-year-old local businessman, was shot dead by accident on Dec. 23 during hunting that involved government officials, including Prosecutor General Valeriu Zubko.

The public officials who participated in the hunt sought to keep the crime secret until the Anti-Mafia Movement leader Sergiu Mocanu made it public on Jan. 6, stressing that the prosecutor general was to blame for the accident and the concealment.

"I must say here that there was no entry about the hunting tragedy in either the operative data base or in the call register of the hospital, where Sorin Paciu was delivered to," said also Interior Minister Dorin Recean at a press conference, adding that not a single one of those hunters, who knew what had actually happened, decided to report the event to the police as this is demanded by the law.

Meanwhile, Valeriu Zubko is considered to resign unconditionally, because "he does not have the moral authority to hold this office."

The leaders of the ruling Alliance for European Integration agreed Monday to form a parliamentary committee to investigate the case.