The personal data finished by the unconstitutional Transnistrian authorities are illegally stored by the Moldovan constitutional authorities and are to be struck off the State Register of the Republic of Moldova. On November 16, the National Center for Personal Data Protection issued two decisions in two cases represented by Promo-LEX Association by which it ruled that the storing of information coming from entities from the left side of the Nistru is a violation of the current legislation because the constitutional authorities, the Ministry of the Interior, cannot legitimize or guarantee the accuracy of such information, IPN reports.
In 2017, Promo-LEX was notified by a number of persons who could not obtain passports in the Republic of Moldova because they would have had a criminal past. The Public Services Agency, when explaining its refusal to issue papers, said information confirming the criminal records that came from the unconstitutional Transnistrian authorities was available in the Register of Crime Information managed by the Ministry of the Interior.
The lawyers of Promo-LEX requested the National Center for Personal Data Protection to check the legality of the processing of personal data as they doubted the accuracy of data from the Register of Crime Information. The Center determined that in 1991-2005, the Ministry of the Interior processed personal data transmitted by the unconstitutional Transnistrian authorities. After 2005, the Transnistrian bodies didn’t provide data, but the information recorded in 1991-2005 continued to exist in the Register of Crime Information and the persons that were included in this database were considered as being prosecuted or with a criminal past.
The National Center for Personal Data Protection identified violations of the law on personal data protection and decided that the automated processing of special categories of data of Moldovan citizens, based on information that came from the unconstitutional entries, represents non-observance of the principles of personal data protection and limits the people’s rights and freedoms and instructed that the Ministry of the Interior should destroy the stored information concerning the citizens. During ten days, the Ministry is to notify the Center of the taken measures.
Promo-LEX said the Ministry on March 29, 2018 made an order providing the papers will be issued based only on information provided by the Moldovan constitutional authorities. However, the association’s lawyers consider this mechanism does not solve the problem of the information stored in the Register of Crime Information in 1991-2005 and the Ministry should immediately implement the Center’s decision. The Ministry can challenge this decision during 30 days.
Prmo-LEX also said that some of the state institutions of Moldova cooperated with the Transnistrian militia. In 2012, a police colonel of the Ministry of the Interior furnished the unconstitutional Transnistrian authorities with personal data concerning the Eryomenko family, including Vitalie Eryomenko, who was illegally deprived of freedom by the Transnistrian regime. The Supreme Court of Justice obliged then the Ministry to pay 192,000 lei damages to the family of Vitalie Eryomenko because it illegally revealed personal data.
