Lawyer Vitalie Taulean is accusing the law-enforcement bodies of terrorizing a Chisinau family with 6 children at the instruction of a former police officer.
At a press conference on Tuesday, the lawyer showed reporters a video recording in which the the married couple Aliona and Radu Vartic related about how three people dressed in plain clothes entered their household identifying themselves as police officers and ill-treated them in front of their 6 children.
According to the lawyer and the spouses, on Monday early morning three men knocked at the door and on the windows of the family's house. When Aliona came out to see who's there, one of the men presented himself as a police officer and demanded that the husband follow them to the Botanica police station. When Radu refused to come out, another man walked into the house and started to beat him in front of his children.
Lawyer Taulean, who represents Radu Vartic in another criminal case, was immediately informed. The three alleged officers left the family's yard only when they heard that the lawyer was coming.
According to Vitalie Taulean, his client got in trouble with a former police officer who had hired him to do some house repairs. Dissatisfied with the result, the employer refused to pay the contractor and even threatened to send him to prison if he didn't buy the house on which he worked, estimated at 57,000 euros. The lawyer added that the former policeman found other clients of Radu Vartic and, using his contacts in the police, made them file complaints against the contractor.
Taulean said the press conference should be considered a complaint to the Prosecutor's General's Office, which is asked to react to the fact that 3 police officers trespassed on his client's property without a warrant. Taulean said there's footage showing the three leaving the family's household, of good enough quality to identify them.
According to the lawyer, the police officers can be charged with abuse of power, punishable by up to 3 years in prison, or with violation of domicile, which carries imprisonment terms of 2 to 5 years.
