Acting prosecutor general Dumitru Robu restarted the April 7, 2009 case and instructed the Prosecutor’s Office for Organized Crime and Special Cases (PCCOCS) to handle the case. The decision was taken following information presented by citizen Boris Sprîncean in a TV program on November 10 and after MP Lilian Carp filed a complaint on the issue.
Contacted by IPN for a comment, the press service of PCCOCS didn’t say the name of the prosecutor who will deal with the case. PCCOCS press officer Emil Gaitur noted the prosecutors of their institution will take the necessary procedural-penal measures to probe the assertions of the participant in the TV program, according to whom particular trained persons had the role of contributing to the degeneration of the events by using firearms. The investigations will also focus on the usurpation of state power, mass disorder and the imperative of ensuring national security.
In 20015, the Appeals Court convicted five employees of law enforcement agencies, including former Minister of the Interior Gheorghe Papuc. Later the same year, the Supreme Court of Justice decided that former Minister of the Interior should pay only a fine, while the former general commissioner of Chisinau municipality Vladimir Botnari was acquitted on the count of professional negligence during the events of April 2009. Of all the accused police officers, 15 were convicted, 27 were acquitted, while one law enforcement officer was fined.
On April 7 this year, when it was 12 years of those events, representatives of a number of civil society organizations issued a position note, saying that the “April 7, 2009” case is a failed one. All the persons with responsible posts were acquitted or the charges against them were dropped. All those who used torture escaped punishment. Twelve years have passed since those tragic events, but the over 600 persons who were maltreated, detained and beaten cruelly didn’t benefit from independent and equitable justice. They were held in inhuman conditions, without water and food. At least five persons lost their lives in suspicious conditions. However, the state assumed responsibility for only one death. The common call of the NGOs reminds of the 108 complaints about the abuses committed by decisions makers and police officers recorded by the Prosecutor’s Office. It notes that the ECHR convicted Moldova in eight cases concerning the April 7, 2009 case, while over 40 applications are pending.
