Last detainee of Ilascu group has been freed this morning

The last political prisoner of the Ilascu group, Tudor Petrov-Popa, was set free this morning, at around 10.00, by the Transnistrian authorities after serving his 15-year term. Tudor Petrov-Popa was set free without incidents, unlike the release of his fellow inmate Andrei Invantoc, who was beaten on Saturday by the Transnistrian militiamen, with some Chisinau Government officials just standing by and watching. Later he was forced into a car of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and was driven to Chisinau, to the apartment where his wife took refuge. Although an ambulance gave him the first aid upon arrival, the pain was so unbearable that Andrei Ivantoc needed additional medical assistance from the Urgent Medicine National Centre, which diagnosed “brain concussion, facial, head and other soft tissue injuries, and multiple bruises”. The Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Moldova released a press statement expressing deep concern about the release procedure after 15 years of illegal detainment, a procedure by which the self-proclaimed Tiraspol regime allowed degrading and inhumane treatment of Andrei Ivantoc, severely violating his constitutional and procedural rights, which was tacitly watched by the representatives of the constitutional authorities of Moldova and of OSCE. The Committee requests that impartial and independent investigations are instituted concerning this case, and that the guilty persons are held answerable. HCHRM also demands that the victim receive fair and equitable compensation. Andrei Ivantoc and Tudor Petrov-Popa are the last two of the four members of “the Ilascu group” arrested during the military conflict on the Nistru River and sentenced by the so-called supreme court of the self proclaimed republic of Transnistria to 15 years in prison, on charges of “terrorist attacks”.