Citizen Ion Garstea said he became the victim of abuses and bandit-like inspection methods used at the Moldovan customs posts. In a news conference on December 13, he said that he was intimated by customs officers after he sued the Customs Service at the beginning of the year and made the case public, Info-Prim Neo reports. Veaceslav Balacci, an associate member of the public association “Realitate si Adevar” (“Reality and Truth”), said that everything started after Ion Garstea gave a news conference in February and told how customs officers at the Leuseni-Albita customs posts damaged his vehicle with a drill, looking for contraband. But they found nothing. After Ion Garstea made the case public, he filed a lawsuit against the Customs Service. In June, the Chisinau Court of Appeals accepted partially his request, obliging the Customs Service to compensate him for the damage caused by the customs officers. Ion Garstea said that afterward, on October 31, when he crossed the same customs post, he was met by a whole team of employees of the customs post’s special subdivisions with sniffer dogs. When he only entered the customs area, an inspector told him not to hurry as there was a surprise waiting for him. According to Ion Garstea, the inspection lasted from 11.30 until 18.30. One of the customs officers reported that he discovered six packs of cigarettes in the vehicle. Garstea said that he did not have cigarettes in the car and they were put there intentionally. “Even if the cigarettes were found in the vehicle indeed, there were two more persons in the car, who had the right to take by 10 packets of cigarettes with them over the border,” said the man, adding that a report was drawn up against him and he was fined 1,500 lei. Ion Garstea also said that on November 21, the Supreme Court of Justice quashed the decision of the Court of Appeals and sent the case back for reexamination after almost a year of hearings. No definitive decision was passed within this period and he could not appeal to the ECHR. Ion Garstea and Veaceslav Balacci, who supports him in this case, called on the Customs Service to stop the bandit-like practices in their work and the persecution by order. They also called upon the authorities to take steps and deal with the cases of abuse that happen in this system.