Moldovan lawyer Veaceslav Turcan, who heads the representative office of the international nongovernmental organization Human Rights Embassy, said he was arrested and deported illegally from Russia by the Federal Security Service and banned from entering the country for a period of four years and a half.

In a news conference at IPN, Veaceslav Turcan said that he was arrested at the Domodedovo airport in Moscow, from where he intended to go to Velikii Novgorod to take part in an international conference of practicing lawyers and jurists from five CIS member states as a moderator.

According to the lawyer, the Russian border guards took his passport and informed him that he cannot enter Russia until October 16, 2018. He was then taken to a detention room inside the airport, where he was held in inhuman and degrading conditions for over 12 hours.

Veaceslav Turcan said that about 60 persons of different nationalities were held in that room that was at most 20 square meters in area. There was only one toilet and no air conditioning there and they were given one glass for drinking water.

The Moldovan lawyer enumerated a number of gross violations of the human rights committed by the Domodedovo border guards, including the fact that the two-month-old child of a woman was taken away and held separately while his mother was in detention. Also, a citizen of Syria who asked for political asylum in Russia has been held there since last October.

Veaceslav Turcan said the reason why he was banned from entering Russia wasn’t explained to him. He already made a relevant enquiry trough the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Integration.