The director of the Human Rights Center suspects that the minors arrested after the April 7 protests have been subjected to pressure. “They are strained and frustrated and are afraid of the situation in which they found themselves,” Anatol Munteanu has told Info-Prim Neo. According to him, employees of the Center visited yesterday the three children held at the Penitentiary No. 13 and the minor held at the Chisinau General Police Commissariat. The lawyers for human rights say that they did not manage to find out for how long the children have been under arrest with the parents not knowing this. Anatol Munteanu considers that the required procedures have been generally observed, with small exceptions, and the detained minors were counseled by lawyers. “The lawyer was present at the interrogation. The children told me this themselves,” Munteanu said. The director of the Human Rights Center thinks that the cooperation with the authorities is faltering as they answer the interpellations of the ombudspersons with delay. Munteanu also said that the situation of human rights in Moldova has worsened significantly. “I think that a number of the rights have been blatantly violated. Now, it will be difficult to renew the dialogue with the society and the authorities,” he said, adding that the right to assembly was the most affected. He said that the Center is now investigating complaints from persons who say they were subjected to excusive violence by the police. Anatol Munteanu called on the authorities to identify the persons that provoked and manipulated the crow during the last week protests. “They should investigate where the protesters took the eggs and stones from and why the placards and slogans were different from those used initially and that the people supported,” Anatol Munteanu said. Nineteen children that took part in the April 7 protests were arrested by the police. The relatives, colleagues and friends of another 10 children informed the lawyer for children’s rights Tamara Plamadeala that the given children went missing and had been presumably arrested by the police. Three children are held at Penitentiary No. 13 and one at the Chisinau General Police Commissariat. The other children were put under house arrest.