Moldova turns into police state: parliamentary opposition

Moldova is turning into a police state, the parliamentary opposition claims. On Friday in the Parliament's session, MPs ask to invite the Interior Minister to comment on the behavior of the police in a number of resounding cases. Yet the proposal was culled by the Communist majority, Info-Prim Neo reports. Vlad Filat, the leader of Liberal-Democratic Party, has asked Minister Valentin Mejinschi to come and report on aggressing and arresting Pro TV cameraman Mihai Sambra by Chisinau police. “Oppressing media is a very grave matter,” the MP argued his request. The proposal has been backed by National Liberal Vitalia Pavlicenco who shows herself socked at the police having aggressed the Pro TV cameraman. “We're sliding to an obvious dictatorial regime,” she finds. Pavlicenco has also asked for the Minister to report on “the heroin dossier”, as the inquest is over. Also Democratic leader Dumitru Diacov has insisted to invite Valentin Mejinschi to the Parliament to discuss the policemen's behavior. “The police fights either cameramen, or protesters,” Diacov stated. The PD leader points out the police makes public more and more cases of catching teachers and doctors taking bribes, neglecting the presumption of innocence, while even more serious infractions are hidden. “The police is transforming into a terror organ, which intimidates people in opposition,” the PD leader accuses. “Moldova is turning into a police state,” Moldova Noastra Alliance MP Leonid Bujor stated. He referred to a case when four policemen mocked a shepherd from Ialoveni, to policemen helping drug smugglers and to the “inadequate behavior of the Chisinau deputy police commissar in relation to the local authorities.” “It;s very important that the minister provide us with some explanations. We don't want the police to turn into an oppressing weapon,” Bujor said. MP Zoia Jalba has asked the minister information as to “the turmoil caused by the police in Orhei on October 5.” The Communist MPs have however rejected the opposition's proposal. “We do not want to defend the minister, but we should act within the law's boundaries,” Communist Vadim Misin argued. According to him, the minister can be invited to answer concrete questions, not to be bombarded by the opposition with questions for an hour. The Communist deputy has said “the heroin case” was submitted to the court and any questions on this issue might be qualified as pressures. “We understand our colleagues' concerns as to the situation in the country, but it is no different from what it was half a year or a year ago,” Misin concluded. After the sitting, speaker Marian Lupu has told journalists he asked the Interior Ministry to inform him about the Pro TV cameraman case. The speaker says he'll be able to comment the incident only after having all the details. “However I can say that a policeman maltreating a journalist on duty is inadmissible,” Marian Lupu said.