The lawyers conducting the so-called “Heroin Case” accuse the General Prosecutor's office of violating the procedural rights of the policemen held in custody, as no formal charges have been brought against them so far. Even so, the three policemen will be held in custody for at least another 30 days, their lawyers, Vladimir Marii and Vitalie Nagacevschi, told a news conference on Thursday, Info-Prim Neo reports. Vladimir Marii said that on May 28 the court rejected the request for annulment of the detention warrant issued for the three policemen. According to him, this time the lawyers witnessed the same abuses, the most serious of which was the failure of the prosecution to explain the reasons for the arrest and further detention, so as to allow the defense to prepare counterarguments. The lawyers describe these failures as extremely serious violations that could later bring a guilty verdict for Moldova in international courts. “There are procedural safeguards that explicitly state that everyone who is arrested must be informed promptly of the reasons for his arrest and the charge against him, but the Moldovan law enforcement bodies apparently have failed to do so... We don't understand what can possibly excuse these failures”, stated Vladimir Marii. According to Vitalie Nagacevschi, as long as the three policemen are unlawfully held in custody, it doesn't matter to the lawyers whether they committed or not the offenses they are suspected of. What matters now is that their rights are severely violated. The lawyers also want to know whether there are reasonable suspicion to consider that if let free the suspects would impede the investigations and the establishment of the truth, or would flee, or commit another offenses. Nagacevschi says these risks must be first demonstrated by the prosecution before holding their clients in custody. “We would like to ask the courts to judge the case from the perspective of the cases lost by Moldova at the European Court. We don't want anyone to say later that the lawyers and not Moldova's authorities are to blame”, Vitalie Nagacevschi pointed out. The lawyer told reporters he already sent a letter to the European Court of Human Rights informing it about the situation of the arrested policemen, relying on Article 5 of the European Convention.