Chisinau mayor accused of illegally authorising assemblies

The Centru District Court on February 19 started hearing a case in which the Mayor General of Chisinau Dorin Chirtoaca is accused by the municipal police of authorising meetings in the municipality of Chisinau in breach of the legislation. The mayor denies the accusations, saying that he acted in accordance with the European Convention on Human Rights, Info-Prim Neo reports. At the hearing, Iurie Crijanovschi, head of the Public Order Division of the Chisinau General Police Department, said that the mayor did not observe the law on the organisation and holding of assemblies in three cases: a protest staged by a group of young people on December 24, 2007, a meeting dedicated to the Union of the Romanian Principates held on January 24 and a protest march organised on January 29. According to the police, in two of the three cases, the mayor did not take into account that under the legislation the application must be filed 15 days before the date of the protest and that it must be examined at least five days before the meeting. In the third case, he did not take into consideration the police’s opinion when authorising the protest. Dorin Chirtoaca said that the ECHR’s legislation rules over the internal normative documents. “It would have been much more serious, if the Chisinau City Hall had responded to a violation of a procedure with the violation of a basic human right. The consequences then could be really serious for the local public administration. If we want to observe the EU laws, we must start with observing the legislation of the Council of Europe. Otherwise, we cannot speak about a more advanced stage,” Chirtoaca said. Chirtoaca compared the law on the organisation and holding of assemblies with a Soviet-type vehicle, while the European Convention with a European vehicle. “So, this means we like European cars, yet not the European laws,” the mayor said. The mayor said that all these trials are meant to hinder him from dealing with the problems of the citizens, making him lose time in courts. The case is examined by the same judge that fined Chirtoaca for staging a protest march on March 27, 2007 and that confirmed him to the post of mayor in June 2007. Recently, the Parliament adopted a new law on assemblies in first reading. The law says that assemblies may be held without an authorisation from the local authorities, a notification in writing being sufficient.