Valentin Eșanu, a former political prisoner, calls on the authorities to formulate legal proposals to hold accountable the persons to blame for Moldova’s conviction by the European Court of Human Rights. In a news conference hosted by IPN, he made public a list of persons whom he considers to blame for the violation of his rights, as the ECHR recently ascertained in its judgment. Among these are prosecutors, judges of different courts and investigation officers.
Valentin Eșanu was arrested in 2017 on tax evasion and money laundering charges. He was set free in 2019, while in 2020 his criminal case was stopped. It happened after the Prosecutor’s Office took note of the PACE Repot and the statements of NGOs, civic activists, representatives of political parties and also the requests made to the prosecutor general, who was informed about the criminal cases that were suspected of having been started by political order.
In the news conference, Valentin Eșanu addressed a message of gratitude to the Delegation of the European Union to the Republic of Moldova. According to him, if the team of the EU Delegation hadn’t intervened, his wife who was constantly subject to intimidation would have been arrested too. Valentin Eșanu also thanked the representatives of the EU embassies in Chisinau, who didn’t remain indifferent and took part in hearings.
He also called on the senior administration to review the bill that stipulates the punishment for those who are to blame for Moldova’s conviction by the ECHR. According to him, those to blame should pay the damages awarded by the Court to victims of the wrongdoings, not the citizens, by their contributions to the state budget. He said the money he is to be paid by the state under the ECHR judgment will be given to a law firm for bringing to justice those who are to blame in his case.
The ECHR held that Valentin Eșanu’s rights not to be subject to arbitrary arrest and detention, to be set free during the procedure and to challenge the remand detention were violated. What is more serious, according to the lawyers, is the fact that the prosecutors intentionally divided the criminal cases into different procedures so as to avoid the constitutional provisions that prohibit holding the person under arrest for more than 12 months.
Lawyers said the problem of arrest in the Republic of Moldova, even if they speak less about it in society at present, remained as serious. Both the prosecutors who ask for arrests in an exaggerated way and the judges who accept such requests do not bear any responsibility for the committed abuses and continue work unrestrictedly.
Note: IPN News Agency gives the right of reply to persons who consider they were touched by the news items produced based on statements of the organizers of the given news conference, including by facilitating the organization of another news conference in similar conditions.
