If there is no decision by the Bureau of Migration and Asylum to declare a person undesirable, all the procedure is illegal in accordance with the Moldovan legislation. The conclusion is thus that the behavior of the Security and Intelligence Service (SIS) was illegal, president of the Legal Resources Center Vladislav Gribincea stated, referring to the case of seven Turkish citizens, among who employees of “Orizont” Lyceum, who were expelled from Moldova.
“What are the consequences of this illegality for the involved persons? These can get compensations and have the illegality ascertained by the ECHR or in the Republic of Moldova. This is a minor issue. The damage to the Republic of Moldova’s image is very detrimental to Moldova as this case shows that the state Republic of Moldova can arrest anyone in breach of the law and can do whatever it wants to this person. This is not at all compatible with the rule of law principles that the Republic of Moldova pretends to respect,” Vladislav Gribincea stated in an interviewer for Radio Europe, being quoted by IPN.
Vladislav Gribincea also commented on the SIS’s assertions that it coordinated the operation with foreign intelligence services. “What do the foreign intelligence services have to do with a matter of declaring persons undesirable? Also, not only the SIS was involved in this matter, but also the Ministry of the Interior, as the SIS employees were accompanied by police officers. Moreover, the persons were taken out of the Republic of Moldova. I doubt they had passports on them to be able to leave the country, ” stated the jurist.
According to him, the period from the detention up to the de facto extradition to the Turkish authorities was of at most three hours and a charter plane was in Moldova at that period by coincident and this took those persons to Turkey. It is highly improbable that a charter plane would stay permanently on Moldova’s territory. These planes come from elsewhere and this shows that things were planned beforehand together with the Turkish authorities.
Vladislav Gribincea noted that if he was Prime Minister or Speaker of Parliament, he would seek the resignation of the ministry of the interior or the SIS director. He added he does not believe that such things in the Republic of Moldova take place without being coordinated with the senior administration. “I think those from the administration of the Democratic Party knew well what was going on,” said the jurist.
Asked how this case could develop, the president of the Legal Resources Center said the persons are in Turkey already and he does not believe that the Turkish authorities will send them back to Moldova.
