Head of Chisinau's child protection department has been arrested

Svetlana Chifa, the head of Chisinau' municipal department for children's rights protection and also a member of the Moldova Noastra Alliance (AMN), has been in police custody under a preventive arrest warrant since Tuesday evening, January 13, Info-Prim Neo reports. In a press statement, the AMN said Svetlana Chifa was urgently summoned to appear before the Prosecutor General's Office on Tuesday and after the quizzing ended at around 8:40 PM she was arrested for a period of 72 hours. Shortly after that, searches were conducted at her residence and at the work place. The arrest was reportedly made as part of a criminal case initiated ahead of the 2005 parliamentary elections, in which Chifa had been charged with abuses in adoption procedures. Apparently those proceedings have been restarted. The AMN expresses indignation at the measure taken against Svetlana Chifa, who is also the chairperson of the AMN women's arm in Chisinau. “We consider that the Prosecutor General's Office is committing another execution of a political order from the government, which is based on trumped-up charges, like in many other cases involving opposition politicians”, the statement reads. “Today, as new parliamentary elections approach, the government and the Communist Party, using its servile coercive bodies, are amplifying their counterstroke against the active members of the AMN”. Asked by Info-Prim Neo to comment on the case, the spokesperson for the General Prosecutor's Office, Maria Vieru, informed that on Thursday, January 15, the General Prosecutor will hold a news conference to answer, among others, questions on Svetlana Chifa's case.