The decision to drop the charges against the members of the “Petrenco group”, announced today by the Prosecutor General’s Office, is a late one, said the group’s leader Grigore Petrenco, who is a member of honor of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE).
“Surely, better late than never, but it’s regrettable that they needed more than six years to realize that there was no evidence in this case and all the accusations were fabricated,” Grigore Petrenco stated in a news conference at IPN.
According to him, even if the prosecutor general stated that the case of Petrenco is a political one and this happened more than a year ago, the case hasn’t been dropped. Grigore Petrenco voiced hope that the judge will take the only possible decision in this case: the acquittal of all the group’s members.
Grigore Petrenco said he is satisfied with the ECHRs judgment in the case of Petrenco and others versus the Republic of Moldova and thanked the lawyers in this case, expressing his confidence that this decision will influence the initiation of a lustration procedure in relation to those involved in the fabrication of political cases in Moldova, including prosecutors, bailiffs, persons close to Plahotniuc, police officers, civic activists, politicians.
The ex-MP noted that all those who handled political cases, not only the case of Petrenco, should be known and criminal cases should be started against the illegalities committed by them.
The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) on September 14 published its judgment in the case of Petrenco and others versus the Republic of Moldova, noting that Moldova violated a number of articles of the European Convention on Human Rights. The case concerned the applicants’ arrest and detention following a demonstration on criminal charges of participation in mass disorders and the imposition on them of a prohibition on participating in public gatherings after their release from pre-trial detention for some three years.
The High Court ascertained that the applicants’ remand in custody and house arrest had been unlawful and weren’t based on a reasonable suspicion that they had committed an offence. It obliged Moldova to pay a total of €63,750 in respect of non‑pecuniary damage and €4,000 in respect of the costs and expenses incurred before the Court.
The Prosecutor General’s Office today announced that it decided to drop the accusations against the persons charged in the case of “Petrenco group”, namely organization and participation in mass disorder.
