Penitentiary No. 13 of Chisinau was surrounded by improvised chains. More than 70 people from different parts of the country chanted slogans against the use of torture and violence in the prison. According to them, the prisoners there live in inhuman conditions and are subjected to torture, IPN reports.
Cristina Pereteatcu, executive director of Amnesty International Moldova that defends the human rights and that organized the event, said the detainees in this penitentiary are held in deplorable conditions. “This penitentiary is a cell of shame. I don’t know how the people resist there. The prisoners complain about serious health problems. Every second detainee here suffers from tuberculosis and the cells are overcrowded. They can have a shower once a week. This is inhuman,” she stated.
A young man from Ialoveni district said that he heard about this event from his friends and joined in because he wants Moldova to be a democratic country where the human rights are respected and the cases of torture are not tolerated. A woman aged 70 from Glodeni said she takes part because she knows about cases of torture. Another woman from Merenii Noi said she supports the initiatives aimed at sensitizing the people to torture which is widely used in Moldova.
Amnesty International Moldova staged the event on the occasion of the International Day in Support of Victims of Torture. The event will continue with an appeal to the Prosecutor General’s Office, the Supreme Council of Magistrates and the Ministry of Justice to finish the investigation of the April 7, 2009 case as soon as possible.
Asked by IPN to comment on the accusations of the protesters, Ana Druta, of the Ministry of the Interior’s Department of Penitentiary Institutions, denied that the detention conditions in the penitentiary are inhuman. She said the prison provides the minimum conditions stipulated by the law. She added that a new penitentiary is to be built and a part of the prisoners of penitentiary No. 13 will be transferred there.
According to Amnesty International Moldova, the ECHR examined 62 cases over torture and inhuman treatment against Moldova.
