Journalistic Ernest Vardanyan has been pardoned. The information was confirmed by his wife, Irina Vardanyan. She stated for Info-Prim Neo that Ernest is expected to come home by 5pm. “We are waiting for him impatiently. We were told that he will arrive in an hour,” said Irina Vardanyan. On December 17, 2010, the unconstitutional Transnistrian authorities sentenced Ernest Vardanyan to 15 years behind bars for state treason and espionage for Moldova. The sentence was passed after over nine months in custody. The journalist’s family was informed that the leader of the Transnistrian region Igor Smirnov signed the pardoning order on the occasion of the World Press Freedom Day that is marked on May 3. Ernest Vardanyan was arrested on April 7, 2010. The Moldovan authorities and international organizations repeatedly called on the administration of Transnistria to release the journalist and Ilie Cazac, a former employer of the Bender tax inspectorate who was sentenced to 14 years in jail on the same charges. A delegation of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly headed by the institution’s President Petros Efthymiou arrived in Moldova on May 4. On May 6, it will leave for Tiraspol to meet with the Transnistrian leader Igor Smirnov, Tiraspol’s representative to the Transnistrian conflict settlement talks Vladimir Yastrebcheak, and the Supreme Soviet President Anatoli Kaminski.