It has been three years since the case of Andrei Braguța, who died in penitentiary, but there is no yet definitive and irrevocable decision. A number of criminal and contravention cases were started over this case and at least 140 hearings were organized, but over 100 of them were put off for different reasons invoked either by the defendants or by other parties, but none of them was postponed because the lawyers or prosecutors were absent. The lawyers for the family and of Promo-LEX Association warn about the necessity of hastening the examination of this case.
In a news conference at IPN, Promo-LEX lawyer Vadim Vieru said that four cellmates and three police officers are involved in the first case, being accused of maltreatment, torture and causing of boldly injuries in the remand prison. The ordinary court of law passed judgment in this case and the case is now pending at the appeals court. This and the other cases are examined very slowly, as the lawyers and the family consider.
Vadim Vieru noted that two judges of the ordinary court stated that defendants’ deeds cannot be classed as torture. Respectively, these were acquitted. There was also a separate opinion where reference is made to the arguments presented by the state attorney and by lawyers. The case has been pending at the appeals court for a year.
The family’s lawyer Victor Munteanu said that 13 police officers who supervised Andrei Braguța outside the day he was maltreated are involved in the second case. The case was sent to court on January 10, 2018 and until now the case is in the ordinary court. The scheduled hearings are adjourned for different reasons, including because of the absence of participants in the trial.
The lawyer said neither he nor his family or colleagues understand this delay tactic. The passing of judgment is irreversible and will have to ultimately take place. The “use of torture” offense does not have a statute of limitations and the purpose of delays is thus not clear. They hope the case will be ultimately brought to an end.
The third, contravention case features persons from the penitentiary and concerns the provision of insufficient medical assistance to Andrei Braguța. The ordinary court passed its judgment, but the appeals court ordered a retrial. A new decision was pronounced, but both of the decisions, even if they class the persons as guilty, order to drop the charges for the reason that the prescriptive period expired.
Promo-LEX lawyer Victoria Gamurari said another case was started against medical workers over violation of the rules and methods of providing medical assistance that led to the death of Andrei Braguța. The case features two medical workers of Penitentiary No. 16. The criminal case was started in November 2017, but the trial has lasted long. The case was sent to court in August 2018. More than 15 hearings have been set since then. The trial will yet last as the evidence of the defense is to be examined, the defendants are to be questioned, etc.
Promo-LEX and the lawyers draw attention to the necessity of hastening the examination of these cases. They note they do not want this fact to be perceived as public pressure on the case or public justice, but the absence of a final decision generates questions.
The conference “Three years of death of Andrei Braguța. Evolutions and (in)actions” forms part of the series of conferences held in the framework of IPN’s project “Injustice Revealed through Multimedia”. IPN Agency does not assume the right to decide if the organizers of news conferences are right in the cases about which they will speak as this is the exclusive prerogative of justice, but the exaggeratedly long examination period of these cases, which is much longer than the law allows, can be considered an act of evident unfairness and injustice. IPN News Agency does not bear responsibility for the public statements made in the public sphere by the organizers of news conferences.
