Andrei Ivantoc was released

Andrei Ivantoc, one of the last two members of the Ilascu group imprisoned in the jails of the Transnistrian separatist regime was released on Saturday, June 2, after a 15-year-long detainment in Tiraspol. The Transnistrian militia delivered Ivantoc to the Moldovan authorities at the Tighina border checkpoint. According to the journalists present there, Ivantoc had prepared himself for the release, and he wanted to take with him some of the belongings he owned for 5479 days in his confinement room. The authorities of the prison did not let him take out anything of what he belonged. Andrei objected and asked for his rights to be respected. Because of that he had his hands tied, he was violently beaten up, after which he was forced out of his cell and was put in a car, Ziarul de Garda newspaper writes. Once brought closer to the Tighina border checkpoint , the representatives of the Transnistrian authorities read out his order (an order similar to the one read to Ilie Ilascu in 2001 and to Alexandru Lesco in 2004), which announced that Andrei Ivantoc was persona non grata on the Transnistrian territory and that he was not allowed to return there. It was also mentioned that that was the document associated with his surrender to the Moldovan authorities. At the checkpoint, Andrei jumped out of the car and started running back towards Transnistria, protesting against this illegal order and against this surrender procedure officiated according to a mutual agreement between the authorities from Chisinau and Tiraspol. He was hardly seized by Transnistrian agents, but after he was captured, he was once again subjected to a violent treatment. The vice ministers of Reintegration and Health witnessed this incident. At the demand of the people present, the officials from Chisinau requested the Transnistrian authorities to let Andrei Ivantoc’s wife to cross the border and to join him. Eudochia was allowed to go to Andrei, but she could not take her purse, her cell phone, water and medication. Finally, Andrei was forced into a car belonging to the Moldovan authorities and was driven to Chisinau. Andrei arrived in Chisinau at about 1 pm, in the apartment where his wife has been living since she left Transnistria, and which Ivantoc has never seen before. He was seen by the doctors. Andrei announced that one of his arms and a leg were hurting because of all the beating and violent treatment that he was subjected to that morning. He was also seen by attorneys. Andrei Ivantoc told “Ziarul de Garda” : “I was expecting that the State authorities would do something during all these years, but I didn’t see anything. Today I felt no support when I was forced out of Transnistria either”. According to Realitatea TV, a journalist representing the opposition press from the Transnistrian side announced that Ivantoc had refused to leave the Transnistrian territory and that he didn’t want to deal with the Moldovan authorities, who, he says, abandoned him all this time. In a phone interview with Realitatea TV, Vice Minister of Reintegration Ion Stavila denied that any incident happened and that Ivantoc was beaten. Stavila said that he has seen Andrei Ivantoc, who was very nervous, but who was feeling fine. “We talked a little, but we discussed only private issues. I personally can understand him, he is very nervous and he is about to reintegrate into his family and into our society. We support him now and will support him from now on. It is not true that he was attacked”, Stavila said. The four members of the Ilascu group – Ilie Ilascu, Alexandru Lesco, Andrei Ivantoc and Tudor Petrov-Popa – have fought for the territorial integrity of the Republic of Moldova during the civil war that ended with the separation of Transnistria. Just before the end of the conflict, on June 2 1992, they were arrested and a Transnistrian court tried them for terrorism. Ilascu was sentenced to death, Lesco was sentenced to 12 years in jail and Andrei Ivantoc and Tudor Petrov-Popa were sentenced to an imprisonment term of 15 years. Following international demands, Ilie Ilascu was pardoned and released after 9 years of detention and after being elected senator in the Romanian Parliament, as a member of the “Romania Mare” Party. Three years later, in 2004, at the expiry of his detention period, Alexandru Lesco was freed. The same year, the ECHR condemned Moldova and Russia in Ilascu case and ordered the release of the last two members of the group imprisoned in Transnistria. However the authorities in Tiraspol have not complied with this decision, while the Russian Federation declared that there was no way they could advocate for the detainees. Tudor Petrov-Popa, the last detainee of the Ilascu Group, is about to be released in two days.