Ernest Vardanyan’s arrest warrant extended

The arrest warrant issued for journalist Ernest Vardanyan was extended for another 60 days, lawyer Ion Manole, the chairman of the human rights organization Promo-Lex, has told Info-Prim Neo. Vardanyan was arrested on April 7 in Moldova’s breakaway region of Transnistria on charges of “treason and espionage in favor of Moldova”, under which the journalist faces from 12 to 20 years in prison. Ion Manole says that nobody knows about the journalist’s detention conditions, not even his family. Moldovan Deputy Prime Minister for Reintegration Victor Osipov told Radio Moldova the accusations brought by the Transnistrian security forces were absurd. “There can be no treason in a non-existing state. This is a very serious charge, an accusation of Soviet origin”, stated Victor Osipov. Besides international organizations, Tiraspol’s representative to the 5+2 talks Vladimir Yastrebchak was also requested to get involved, but no reaction has yet followed. Ernest Vardanyan lives in Tiraspol, the capital of the breakaway region, but was a frequent commuter to Chisinau. An esteemed freelance journalist, Vardanyan was reportedly accepted for a position with the UN Secretariat in New York recently, but is not yet officially a member of the UN staff. Ion Manole says Vardanyan’s arrest is not a case to be handled by the lawyers, suggesting that Moldova and Russia are directly responsible. “It’s the price paid by the citizens living on the eastern side of the Nistru for the fact that the Moldovan authorities have been neglecting for years all bad things going on there”.