Human rights organizations seek dismissal of 8 investigative judges over last April violations

The Institute for Human Rights (IDOM) and the organization Promo-LEX filed a complaint with the Supreme Magistracy Council (CSM) requesting the dismissal of eight investigative judges in Chisinau who conducted criminal and administrative cases in the aftermath of last April's events, Info-Prim Neo reports. The complaint concerns judges Oleg Meliniciuc, Mihail Diaconu, Igor Vornicescu, Gheorghe Morozan, Igor Minascurta, Ion Bulhac, Ala Malii and Ludmila Cernei. “These eight judges ordered administrative arrests for people with visible signs of physical violence, for minors”, Doina Ioana Straisteanu, a human rights expert with Promo-Lex, told a news conference on Thursday. The complaint reminds CSM that the one-year time limit for sanctioning those judges expires on April 8, urging it to fast-track the procedure. “If CSM fails to examine this complaint, it will be regrettable to see that the persons who were arrested illegally in that period are denied a remedy”, said Doina Ioana Straisteanu. Ion Guzun, IDOM project coordinator, says civil society representatives had access to a limited number of such cases, nevertheless they found numerous faults committed by judges. “We found that some judges left the courts before the chairmen of the courts issued any conclusion. Another fault is that the biggest majority of sanctions were ordered based solely on police reports that justified the circumstances of the arrests, but we doubt the truthfulness of those reports”, said Ion Guzun. He added that many arrestees were denied the elementary right to object to the police reports. Earlier in March, CSM dismissed Dorin Popovici, an investigative judge that conducted proceedings in police stations against last April's protesters.