Strong witness protection program needed to combat torture

Moldova's law enforcement bodies are whitewashing the cases of torture, which causes this phenomenon to grow day by day – this is one of the conclusions made by the representatives of the civil society at a seminar titled “Torture in Moldova – What's Going On?”, held in Chisinau on Monday, June 23, Info-Prim Neo reports. According to the chairman of the Helsinki Committee in Moldova, Stefan Uritu, the Department for Penitentiary Institutions and the Ministry of Justice are lying through their teeth when they say they are working on strategies to combat torture and ill-treatment. The authorities are taking this approach in order to build a reputation ahead of the 2009 elections and to look better in the European Union's eyes. Still, each day at least one victim of torture reports the case to the Helsinki Committee. “We have tried a couple of times to get protection for some witnesses from the Interior Ministry and Prosecutor General's office, but every time we were told that there was no money for such services”, said Uritu. “As a rule, the victim has no money. If he had it, he would have bought his freedom, which is possible in Moldova”. Several participants in the seminar have noted that torture victims find it hard to get legal redress because they are refused medical expertise and access to legal assistance. The head of the law division at the Department for Penitentiary Institutions, Alexandru Adam, denied the allegations, saying that every effort is made to eradicate torture in Moldova. According to Amnesty International Moldova's head Yevgeni Golosceapov, the lawyers must also share part of the blame, because they either do not have adequate experience to handle such cases or choose to stay aside out of fear. At the same time, the layers defend themselves by saying that most of the cases involving torture and ill-treatment remain unresolved because of the judges, who do not pay proper attention to such cases, ignoring the evidence produced by the lawyers. Finally, the attendees agreed on the need to enforce the law on witness protection and to allocate more money from public resources for this purpose. The seminar “Torture in Moldova – What's Going On?” was organized by the medical rehabilitation center for torture victims “Memoria” ahead of the UN International Day for Victims of Torture on June 26, with the financial support of the Copenhagen-based International Rehabilitation Council for Torture Victims.