The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) is examining the cases on the maltreatment of young people who took part in the April 7, 2009 protests in Moldova as priority cases. So far, the Court passed a conviction decision, obliging Moldova to pay €15,000 damages to a young man, Info-Prim Neo reports. According to the head of Promo-LEX Association Ion Manole, on December 6, 2001 the ECHR found Moldova guilty of inhuman and degrading treatment in the case of Taraburca versus Moldova. Andrei Taraburca complained that he was beaten while in police custody and the investigation conducted into this case was inappropriate. He wasn’t allowed to contact his relatives while under arrest or to hire a lawyer, was intimidated and was allowed to file a complaint on his maltreatment no sooner than April 14, 2009. Ion Manole said there are no official statistics about the cases submitted to the ECHR by victims of the April 7 events. The Court makes public only the decisions of which the Government is informed. After the ECHR passed judgment on the case of Taraburca versus Moldova, the Government was also informed about the cases of Calancea versus Moldova and Craciuneac versus Moldova. “Moldova should take measures to prevent cases of use or torture and illegal detention and to improve the mechanism for investigating the actions and inaction concerning the use of torture and inhuman and degrading treatment against persons in custody,” stated Ion Manole. Lawyer in the case of Andrei Taraburca versus Moldova Olesea Doronceanu said the fact that the Moldovan young people were maltreated in police commissariats is not new for the ECHR. Moldova was earlier convicted of maltreatment of persons in police custody, but this time the scale of the events played a role. “That’s why the decision was passed much quicker than we expected,” she said. Lawyer Vasile Zama, a member of the public organization Jurists for Human Rights, said that the ECHR may soon pronounce judgment on another case, of Sergiu Buhaniuc versus Moldova, as the Court gives priority to the April 7 cases. The plaintiff may think that the period during which the ECHR examines a case is too long, but the Court considers this is a short period as there are thousands of cases it has to deal with. On April 7, 2009 the young people took to the streets to protest against the April 5 election outcome and demanded that the Communist government should resign. When the peaceful protests degenerated into riots, hundreds of demonstrators were arrested and taken to police commissariats, where they were maltreated and humiliated.