Lawyer Angela Istrate said that attempts are being made to appropriate the business of her clients – road transport operators “Ednateric Trans” and “Transeric Tur” – by order of rivals. In a news conference at IPN, Angela Istrate related that in February 2020, the founders of the two companies were investigated in a criminal case started over illegal migration of persons. The managers of the firms were also investigated. There were ordered 17 searches that cannot be classed as legal.
According to the lawyer, the searches involved the special police in the absence of a relevant court judgment. Buses belonging to the companies were stooped on national roads. Employees of the Prosecutor’s Office for Organized Crime and Special Cases and of the Center for Trafficking in Human Beings ordered all the passengers to get out and interrogated them as witnesses, intimidating them. Later, the interrogated persons were phoned and told to present themselves and give testimony, without being issued with summons.
Angela Istrate noted that attempts were made to seize the cellphones of drivers, which were used to keep in touch with companies that served the routes. The lawyers intervened and the cellphones weren’t confiscated. Later, the searches were challenged and court judgments by which these were declared illegal were passed.
The searches conducted at carriers’ officers involved persons who weren’t included in the search group. These seized hardware with data of passengers and accounting records and also companies’ telephones without sealing them up. Later, they answered the phones and told clients that the companies do not work and will not work anymore.
During the searches, the rights of the defense were also violated as the lawyer wasn’t allowed to discuss with the clients in conditions of confidentiality. The employees weren’t allowed to leave the workplace. The lawyer was invited to the office by investigation officers and was obliged to make statements, stated Angela Istrate.
The news conference forms part of the series of conferences held in the framework of IPN’s project “Injustice Revealed through Multimedia”. IPN Agency does not assume the right to decide if the organizers of news conferences are right in the cases about which they will speak as this is the exclusive prerogative of justice, but the exaggeratedly long examination period of these cases, which is much longer than the law allows, can be considered an act of evident unfairness and injustice. IPN News Agency does not bear responsibility for the public statements made in the public sphere by the organizers of news conferences.
