Latest acts by police and judiciary question progress made as part of TCP, Anticorruption Alliance

The Anticorruption Alliance (ACC) expresses its concern about the actions taken by some of the institutions that benefited from assistance as part of the Threshold Country Program (TCP) for Moldova. The ACC considers that the latest acts by the police and judicial system question the progress made during the last two years, Info-Prim Neo reports. The ACC secretary Mircea Esanu told a news conference on Thursday that though the TCP activities designed for the Ministry of the Interior laid emphasis on the formulation of programs and training courses on ethics, police deontology and observance of the human rights, which benefited about 12,000 employees of the Ministry, the latest events question the quality and impact of the measures taken. “The employees of this Ministry made mass arrests during the last two weeks. There were reported numerous cases of serious maltreatment of the persons held in police commissariats. We suspect that the Ministry did not present the full lists of the arrested persons. Despite numerous appeals from the international community, the unlawful acts continue and this makes us think that the impact of those actions, financed from the money of the U.S. Government as well, have had no impact yet,” Esanu said. The ACC pointed to a series of irregularities in the activity of the judicial system. “A part of the court decisions concerning the April 7 events, the trying of the suspects inside police commissariats and the decisions banning access to electoral rolls issued during the last days are proofs that seriously discredit the legal system in Moldova and question the real progress made by the judicial system during the last two years. Unfortunately, the renovation of the courtrooms and their equipment did not contribute to a better quality of justice,” Mircea Esanu said. Moldova’s two-year $24.7 million Threshold Country Program commits the Government to undertake specific and needed reforms to control corruption in five distinct areas. Five members of the ACC monitor how the Government implements the TCP. The monitoring activity forms part of the Strengthening Civil Society Monitoring Capacity in Moldova Program carried out by the Academy for Educational Development. The Program is financed by the U.S. Government through the Millennium Challenge Corporation and managed by the United State Agency for International Development as part of the TCP.