April 7, 2009 was a turning point in the modern history of Moldova after eight years of rule of a dictatorial regime that limited the freedom of expression, treated the opposition parties absolutely cynically and when civil society was totally anemic, the leader of the Liberal parliamentary group Ion Hadarca has told Info-Prim Neo. “Last year before April 7, the Liberal faction prepared a draft decision with amendments to the Decision on Holydays and Commemorative Days, which proposed instituting April 7 as the Freedom Day. This year, we put forward this initiative again. This shows our attitude towards those events,” said Ion Hadarca. He also said that the then opposition planned a rally for April 6 to protest against the irregularities committed in the April 5 elections. “It seems to me that the secret scenario to provoke the peaceful protesters who demonstrated against the vote rigging, lies and cheating developed from those plans. The direction of the process was changed. The protesters who wanted to stop the social decline said a categorical NO to the Communist regime. Their enthusiasm resulted in an uncontrolled behavior. The state forces probably used that situation and implemented scenarios that led to devastations,” stated Ion Hadarca. According to him, those who were behind those scenarios have not yet emerged. “Some of them wore balaclavas, others disappeared as whole sacks of documents from the Security and Information Service that was then managed by Artur Reshetnikov,” said the MP. He stressed that the police’s acts of violence, torture and the illegal arrest of hundreds of young people, who were being looked for by the parents, reminded of the barbarity of the Stalinist epoch. “We presented documents to the prosecutors, showing that irregularities were committed in the elections. The courts were to pronounce on the cases, but the legal system turned out to be so corrupt and vicious that we can no longer trust it,” said the lawmaker. Ion Hadarca considers that a good result of those events was the formation of the Alliance for European Integration, which started to bring things in order, remedy Moldova’s image, change the course for European integration and show that the state was able to fulfill its commitments. “The image was gradually improved. This is the greatest accomplishment. The mass media sector was liberalized. Civil society became more active and takes part in debates and discussions and gets involved in certain projects. I hope the course for European integration became irreversible. The opposition’s statements about integration into the Eurasian area are pure speculations,” he said. As to the negative consequences of the April 7, 2009 events, the MP said several important players involved in those events were acquitted owing to the dishonesty of judges. Papuc and Botnari (former Minister of the Interior and ex-commissioner general of Chisinau – e.n.) were acquitted, others were not held accountable, and many of those involved are still unknown. “We haven’t yet managed to shed light. Justice is still a tributary one and the cases of raider attacks showed it. Another conclusive example is the evasion of Baghirov (Eduard Baghirov, Russian citizen suspected of involvement in the April 7, 2009 protests – e.n.). This case is full of questions and points to foreign interference in those events,” said the head of the Liberal group. The fact that the truth about April 7, 2009 is not yet known shows that there are shortcomings in the work of the Prosecutor General’s Office. Ion Hadarca believes this is because the institution hasn’t been reformed or because the prosecutors do not consider it necessary to deal with this case. That’s why the Liberal Party asked for the post of Prosecutor General so as to stimulate reforms in the field. Thousands of young people took part in the protests against the election results staged in the Great National Assembly Square in Chisinau on April 7, 2009. The peaceful protests degenerated into riots and the Parliament and Presidential Buildings were devastated. Hundreds of protesters were maltreated, beaten and humiliated in police commissariats. The authorities have not yet announced who is to blame for those events.