Last two members of Ilascu group could be set free this week

The last two members of the “Ilascu group”, Andrei Ivantoc and Tudor Petrov-Popa, who are jailed in Tiraspol for 15 years, could be set free this week. However, no official information in this respect was made public so far. The release of those two Moldovan convicts was announced in early May by Valeri Litkai, the so-called minister of foreign affairs of Transnistria. Also, Grigore Valovoi, the president of Human Rights Association in Tiraspol made a statement on their release two weeks ago. The Transnistrian authorities excluded the possibility of setting free the two convicts earlier, as the European Court of Human Rights ordered several years ago. Andrei Ivantoc had to be freed on Monday, May 28, and Tudor Petrov-Popa on Saturday, June 2, that is after serving the entire sentence. Ivantoc and Popa are the last convicted persons out of those four arrested by the Transnistrian police and subsequently judged and sentenced in 1992 to 12-15 years in jail. They were accused of terrorism during the war in Transnistria. Ilie Ilascu, the leader of the group was sentenced to death penalty. At the request of the international community, Ilascu was pardoned and set free in May 2001. He later was granted the Romanian citizenship and became a senator of the “Romania Mare” (“Greater Romania”) Party in the Parliament of Romania. His colleague, Alexandru Lesko was set free in 2004. In October 2006, a delegation of the Russian Church visited in prison the political convicts Andrei Ivantoc and Tudor Petrov-Popa. The members of the delegation said “they are treated well and do not want to be set free earlier”. Ivantoc went on a hunger strike, between February 27 and March 17, 2006 to protest against the degrading conditions they were living in. The European Court of Human Rights held on 8 July 2004, following a complaint lodged with the court on behalf of all the convicts by Ilie Ilascu, that the Governments of Moldova and Russia are guilty of convicting these persons by the unrecognised regime from Tiraspol. ECHR obliged the Government in Chisinau to pay damages worth EUR 60 thousand, and the Russian Federation – EUR 120 thousand. Subsequently the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe called on the Russian Federation to undertake all the necessary actions to set free the Moldovan citizens convicted by the separatist regime. However, the separatist authorities have defied the international community. In the resolution, CMCoE expressed its concern about the fact that the two convicts are still in prison despite the ECHR decision. At the end of the last week, CMCoE reiterated the danger of creating a precedent in what concerns the ECHR decision, due to “Ilascu and others vs. Moldova and Russia” case.