The League for Defence of Human Rights of Moldova (LADOM) has opened a Centre of legal assistance for convicts in order to monitor the situation in the penitentiary institutions in Moldova and to intervene in defending the rights of these persons. LADOM Director Paul Strutzescu told Thursday a news conference that the Centre is a pilot project. Any detainee or their relatives may appeal to it by means of petitions or hearings. The Centre’s jurists provide remote consultation (answers to the appeals of detainees or relatives), legal assistance offered to detainees’ relatives, legal advice in penitentiary institutions. They will examine cases related to criminal law and penal procedures (torture, inhuman treatment, inadequate detention, appeals procedures, rights of convicts, and terms for examination); real property law (illegal privatisation), family law (divorce procedures, parental rights), civil law (remediation of pecuniary damage); social protection (disability allowance, age limit). In cases of torture and maltreatment, the jurists will also plead the case of detainees in the court. According to Strutzescu, about 10,000 detainees in the Moldovan penitentiaries are in deplorable detention conditions, while their nutrition does not correspond to any standard, as the government provides only 3-3.4 lei daily per inmate (about 25 cents) for food. For this year, as for the past years, about MDL 91 mln were allocated from the state budget to finance the penitentiary system. This doesn’t cover even a half of the needs, the cited source mentioned. The most serious problems that the convicts are confronting with at present, according to the petitions filed to LADOM so far, refer to the imprisonment conditions: too many detainees in a cell, malnutrition, lack of personal hygiene items. The Centre will pay particular attention to the penitentiary institutions in Basarabeasca, Balti, Cahul, Leova, Lipcani, Rusca, Pruncul, Cricova, Goian, Chisinau etc. The pilot-project will last 10 months, being financially supported by Helsinki Committee of Sweden. The Centre for legal assistance receives petitions at the following address: V. Alecsandri street, 13, office 25, on telephone numbers 72.93.52, 28.05.12, 73. 32.33. At the end of this project, LADOM will present a final report to authorities, mass-media, international organisations, familiarising the public opinion with the real situation in the penitentiary institutions in Moldova.