Two policemen suspected of beating convict to death

Two employees of Organized Crime Fighting Department of the Ministry of Interior Affairs are suspected of premeditated murder. According to a press release of the General Prosecutor Office, the convict Simion Miron, 48, died in the surgery room of the 16th Penitentiary “Pruncul” as a result of the injuries caused by two policemen of the Organized Crime Fighting Department of MIA. The death of the convict was confirmed by a special press release of penitentiary’s hospital. According to the same sources, penal proceedings were initiated by a group of prosecutors of the General Prosecutor Office and the Chisinau’s Municipal Prosecutor Office on this case on Friday, July 14. Prosecutors intend to invoke the article 145 (1) of the Penal Code – “premeditated murder”. The press center of MIA declared that it will give further more information on this case and the investigations. Solicited by Info-Prim Neo, the coordinator for volunteers and campaigns of “Amnesty International Moldova”, Veaceslav Balan declared that for a correct and competent investigation it is absolutely necessary to involve a barrister who would represent the deceased person. Otherwise all the clues could be erased, inclusively by the forensic expert, who could include in the death certificate another cause than the real one, Balan said. The president of Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Moldova, Stefan Uratu, declared for Info-Prim Neo that he will soon visit the mentioned-above penitentiary in order to monitor this unbelievable case. Monitoring is necessary says the quoted source, because the guilty persons must be punished as the legislation requires. According to Uratu, many violations are happening in the Moldovan Penitentiaries that are committed both by the employees and the persons inspecting certain cases. Convicts’ denunciations are submitted to the Ministry of Justice who is responsible in this cases so it is the first interested in hushing up the conflicts, even if the legislation stipulates that all the complaints must be examined by the Committee of Petitions, created 6 months ago in order to monitor the penitentiaries’ state of affairs, but at present this independent state organization has neither an office, nor financial resources and necessary materials.