NGO calls on authorities to release Ernest Vardanyan and Ilie Cazac

Promo-Lex Association calls upon the Moldovan authorities to take efficient legal measures and set free Ernest Vardanyan and Ilie Cazac, who were sentenced to long imprisonment terms by the secessionist Transnistrian regime, Info-Prim Neo reports, quoting a communiqué from the organization. Promo-Lex made the call after the relatives of Ernest Vardanyan were informed by the Transnistrian administration that Ernest Vardanyan can be released only after a new ‘pardoning’ application is examined, but it may be submitted not sooner than October 2017. “Promo-Lex ascertains that Ernest Vardanyan cannot be released because the constitutional authorities of Moldova do not have a clear view and a strategy based on the application and observance of the constitutional norms, against all those who took part in his kidnapping, ‘sentencing’, and ‘detention’”, it is said in the communiqué. The NGO says that all these actions and the forcing of the hostage to accept his blame publicly and afterward to seek ‘pardoning’ were aimed at making the residents of Transnistria to live in terror and fear, showing that the regime and those who serve it cannot be penalized. By these actions, the illegal regime wanted to obtain a public ‘pardoning’ request and increase thus the number of propagandistic arguments in favor of its recognition. Promo-Lex demands that the diplomatic approaches towards the international, continental and regional organizations be stepped up In the last meeting of the Chisinau Press Club, former Acting President of Moldova Mihai Ghimpu, the head of the Liberal Party, said that the Moldovan authorities cannot take steps to set free the two detainees as they do not control that territory. “Unfortunately, this is the situation and the reality. What can we do? I was head of state. But I cannot write a letter to Smirnov and make requests to him. We should find a mechanism. It does not depend on us, but on the position of Europe and the Americans who have relations with the Russians,” Mihai Ghimpu said. On December 17, 2010, journalist Ernest Vardanyan was sentenced to 15 years in jail for treason and espionage for Moldova. On February 9, Ilie Cazac got 14 years in prison over the same charges.