The persons who are sequestrated and held in a so-called remand prison in the basement of the militia in Tiraspol said the conditions there are dangerous for life and health. The feeling shared by these is that there is no chance of avoiding a sentence if you cannot secure by yourself protection from the self-styled judges or leaders of the Transnistrian region. At the same time, no one in the country can become involved in the personal problem as the subject of justice in the Transnistrian region is treated as a long-range political one, it is said in a press release of “Promo-LEX” Association, which informed that the European Court of Human Rights on October 11, 2018 communicated a case that reveals these systemic problems in the Transnistrian region, IPN reports.
The ECHR notified the Governments of Moldova and Russia of the case of a former functionary of a town administrant from the northern part of the Transnistrian region, seeking explanations over the violation of provisions concerning inhuman detention and lack of medical assistance stipulated in Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights.
According to the facts dating from 2015, the man was accused of fraud, but he denied the charges. Even if the initiation of a criminal case was rejected for several times for the reason that the elements of an offense were absent, in February 2017 the “committee of inquiry” ordered to take legal action in this case. Later, the man’s actions were reclassified from “abuse of power” into “appropriation” and in March 2017 he was placed under “arrest” and held until June 2, 2017.
“Promo-LEX” said this is a typical case showing how the Transnistrian militia do justice in the region, tendentiously and openly against those who are not theirs and who cannot buy immunity. Most of the times, the citizens of the Republic of Moldova accept this reality and do not try to defend themselves from such illegalities. According to the Association’s jurists, such situations happen daily, but the number of those who try to say something is declining. As lawyers, they recommend that an illegality should be reported to the constitutional courts first of all.
The lawyers of ”Promo LEX said even if the procedure for defending the rights violated by the so-called administration is challenging, the victims should persevere. A number of representative judgments have been passed since 2015, in the cases of Mozer, Eremenko, Vardanean, Apcov, Draci and others. The ECHR systematically ascertained the Transnistrian courts that issued warrants for the arrest of litigants belong to a system that does not respect the legal provisions.
“Promo-LEX” executive director Ion Manole said this situation should be analyzed more profoundly in the dialogue between the sides involved in the Transnistrian conflict settlement as it forms part of the main issue of criminal law application in the secessionist region. The ECHR, as a regional jurisdiction body, should not become involved in the clarification of matters related to the implementation of solutions for transitory justice as this is the task of the authorities.
