The European Court of Human Rights made public its judgment in the case of Ilie Cazac and Stela Surchicean versus the Republic of Moldova and Russia. The Court found Russia guilty of violating the right not to be subject to torture and inhuman treatment and the right to liberty and security in the Transnistrian region of the Republic of Moldova, IPN reports.
The applicants were represented by lawyers and jurists of Promo-LEX Association. In a press release, the Association says the kidnaping of Ilie Cazac by the Transnistrian militia was made public by his mother at the start of 2010. Ilie Cazac, who was then 25, served for the Tax Inspectorate based in Tighina, which is under the control of the illegal Transnistrian administration. On March 19, 2010, he was arrested in Varnița on charges of treason and espionage in favor of the Republic of Moldova.
On February 9, 2011, as a result of a closed-door “trial”, deprived of elementary rights, such as the right to a lawyer and the right to meetings with relatives, Ilie Cazac was sentenced to 14 years in jail. During over a year and a half, his parents, the lawyers of Promo-LEX and a series of international organizations made effort to obtain his release. Ultimately, Ilie Cazac was set free on October 31, 2011, being “pardoned” by the leader of the separatist region.
The ECHR held that Russia violated the right to liberty and security and the right to a fair trial and obliged this to pay €42,000 in respect of non-pecuniary damage to the applicants and €4,000 court costs.
