Corjova officials freed from detention

Valeriu Mitsul, the mayor of Corjova village, and local councilman Iurie Cotsofan, were released on Saturday from the detention of the unrecognized Tiraspol regime, Info-Prim Neo learned from the Moldovan Reintegration Bureau. “Following joint efforts undertaken by the Moldovan Government and other national authorities, by the international partners involved in the settlement of the Transnistrian conflict, as well as by civil society, the Moldovan citizens arrested in Corjova, Dubasari district, have been released from detention”, the Bureau said in a press statement. “The Government of Moldova will continue its actions aimed at securing the immediate release of other two Moldovan citizens illegally arrested and sentenced to heavy imprisonment terms by the authorities on the eastern side of the Nistru, Ernest Vardanyan and Ilie Cazac”, the statement reads. Having been released, Mitsul and Cotsofana were admitted to the National Hospital in Chisinau for rehabilitation, after several days of hunger strike. Valeriu Mitsul and Iurie Cotsofan were arrested on March 2 by the Transnistrian militia as they were participating in a memorial event dedicated to the anniversary of the Nistru war. The village of Corjova is located on the eastern bank of the Nistru and is formally under the jurisdiction of Chisinau, but the Transnistrian authorities claim control over it. For their participation in the event, and in particular for carrying an official flag of Moldova, Mitsul and Cotsofan were charged with “anti-state actions on the territory of the Moldovan Transdnestrian Republic”. It was reported that during the arrest the flag they were carrying was desecrated by the Transnistrian militia.