Civil society organizations condemn authorities’ actions in relation to a number of participants in the April 24 protest. These consider that the authorities unreasonably tried to limit the scope of the event by halting passenger transportation services. According to them, during the protest the police appropriately managed the situation and the low number of participants didn’t pose a significant threat to the police force, while the several cases of use of violence didn’t represent public disorder and should be classed as individual acts of hooliganism, IPN reports.
According to a statement signed the NGOs, observers of the Resource Center for Human Rights established that the protest was held in a generally peaceful atmosphere. The Association “Promo-LEX” on its website placed an analysis based on the finding of observers from national centers of the country. According to the analysis, the observers of “Promo-LEX” determined that the public passenger transportation services in nine districts were halted or reduced between 12 noon and 3pm.
However, the police took legal action over public disorder during the April 24 protest. In over 10 days of the protest, four protesters were arrested and remanded in custody ‘for taking an active part in public disorder, for being aggressive, for throwing stones at the police’, etc. The necessity of remand wasn’t clearly explained.
The signatories say the holding of protesters on remand in the absence of sufficient motivation gives the impression of selective justice aimed at discouraging the protesters. This impression is supported by the way in which at least three persons were arrested. Persons with balaclavas entered their homes at 6am even if it wasn’t about offenses ‘in flagrante’ and the suspects didn’t seem persons who would put up resistance.
The signatories call on the Chisinau Appeals Court to examine the necessity of the arrest of the four persons through the angle of the ECHR standards and the norms of the Supreme Court of Justice and to convincingly pronounce on the given solution. The prosecution bodies and prosecutors are asked to investigate the case promptly, correctly and by respecting human dignity and human rights.
The statement was signed by the Legal Resources Center of Moldova, the Center for Information and Documentation on Child Rights, Amnesty International Moldova, “Promo-LEX” Association, Transparency International-Moldova, BPW Moldova, the Association for Participatory Democracy, the Institute for Public Policy, the Ecologist Movement of Moldova, the Association of Women for Environmental Protection and Sustainable Development, East Europe Foundation, the Small Business Association, the Association of Independent Press, the Institute for European Politics and Reforms, the Rehabilitation Center for Torture Victims “Memoria” etc.
