Court of Appeals decides Fiodor Ghelici was arrested illegally on July 1

The head of an NGO named “Moldova Mea” (My Moldova), Fiodor Ghelici, was arrested illegally on July 1, when he was bracing to stage protests in Chisinau's downtown. The Court of Appeals stated the illegality of the police's actions in a writ, Info-Prim Neo reports. Ghelici says stood in the lockup during one night, and he was fined 20 lei for breeching the public order. “It's natural to get arrested in Moldova for holding a poster in your hands and for protesting according to your constitutional right,” Fiodor Ghelici told a news conference on Wednesday. According to his lawyer, Gheorghe Amihalachioaie, soon Fiodor Ghelici is going to lodge a complaint with the General Prosecutor's office claiming for damages from the Government for the night he spent in the remand center. “We'll go to the very end. And if we do not arrive at justice, we'll go up to the European Court of Human Rights,” the barrister said. Fiodor Ghelici has not decided yet as to the amount he will claim as damages, but supposes it will be some 100,000 euros. On July 1, Moldova Mea's leader announced he would protest on the Great National Assembly Square setting fire to a number of trucks carrying cars from Romania to Ukraine, on reason the then Transport Ministry did not issue the necessary documents to them. The protests failed because Fiodor Ghelici was taken into custody by the police.