Man given life for murder of four

A young man was sentenced to life imprisonment for murdering four persons, including a child, Info-Prim Neo reports, quoting a communique from the Prosecutor General's Office. The prosecution proved that the man committed the crime in a Chisinau apartment in 2005. He rented a room in that apartment, where two young women rented another room. Hoping to get some money from the women who intended to go abroad, the young man stabbed them to death with a knife. Afterward, he stabbed fatally the apartment owners' minor niece with the same knife in the neck. Alarmed at the noise, the girl's grandparents rushed into the room and received stabs as well. The old woman died on the spot. The old man lost consciousness, but remained alive. The man managed to steal a mobile phone and several identification papers. He had been hiding in Russia for two years with false identity cards. In 2007, he was extradited to Moldova. Contacted by Info-Prim Neo, one of the lawyers for the defendant, Veaceslav Turcan said the young man is not guilty and that the judge ignored a number of proofs presented during the hearings and refused to hear several witnesses who could help clarify the case. Turcan said he prosecutors insisted on the man's conviction so as to close the case, but he has another version of what happened that day. According to him, the young women were stabbed by their former pimps, who trafficked them earlier to Turkey. “There were letters imprinted on their bodies. It was a ritual revenge murder,” Turcan said, adding that his client was beaten and tortured in the police station where he had been held for several days after his arrest. “They forced him into admitting his guilt and filmed the confession.” The lawyer also said that the extradition procedure was violated.