Police union chair says Valeriu Boboc had criminal record

Mihail Lascu, the chairman of the police's labor union “Demnitate”, says Chisinau Mayor Dorin Chirtoaca could have stopped the violence on 7 April 2009, but chose the role of a “television star” instead. “As the protesters were devastating the building of Parliament and the Presidential Palace, Dorin Chirtoaca was sitting with Lorena Bogza (a hostess at the channel ProTV), without intervening. The responsibility for such events is always on the officer in charge of the city, that is, the Mayor General”, Mihail Lascu told a news conference. “It seems to me that Lorena Bogza did more than he do, calling the firefighters and the Ministry of the Interior”, said Lascu. Commenting on the recently released video footage of policemen beating young people, Mihail Lascu said Dorin Chirtoaca should have also released footage depicting protesters that were vandalizing government buildings, cars and shop windows, recalling that 272 policemen were injured in those events. Speaking about Valeriu Boboc, a young man that was killed during the protests, Lascu said he had had a criminal record including two robberies, suggesting such a man didn't deserve the honors of a martyr. Dorin Chirtoaca, for his part, described Lascu's statements as “unfounded” and as being attempts to distort the truth. “There is a criminal group in the Ministry of the Interior that committed crimes for which they must pay. The police had no excuse whatsoever to act as they did”, said Chirtoaca.