Valeri Kuzmin hopes 'a more humane solution' can be identified in Vardanyan case

The rather young age of Ernest Vardanyan and the fact that his 15 years' imprisonment sentence has left behind his wife and his two very young children could, perhaps, determine the Transnistrian authorities to “identify a more humane solution to this situation”, said hopefully Russian Ambassador Valeri Kuzmin in an interview with Info-Prim Neo. However, the Russian diplomat was not willing to make any further comment on the case of journalist Ernest Vardanyan, arguing that the sentence was passed by “the supreme court of Transnistria, which acted as an independent body of the judicial branch, albeit of an unrecognized state”. Concerning Ilie Cazac, whose arrest and detention by the Tiraspol authorities was also decried by politicians and civil society in Chisinau, Valeri Kuzmin said any comment would be inopportune as the legal proceedings against Cazac are not over yet. At the same time, the ambassador thinks it is not very appropriate to exploit cases like that of Ernest Vardanyan and Ilie Cazac “as pretexts to accuse one of the parties involved in the conflict of disrespect for human rights”. “To my profound regret, not just I, but also the public opinion knows many cases of human rights violations and flaws of the judicial system which occur on the entire territory of Moldova, including the Transnistrian region. As for the many hostile information and propaganda campaigns, the international practice has clearly demonstrated that they can only harm any settlement process”, stated Kuzmin. In December 2010 journalist Ernest Vardanyan was sentenced to 15 years in prison by the Tiraspol authorities on charges of “grand treason and spying for Moldova”. A young tax inspector, Ilie Cazac, is being tired on the same charges, facing 20 years' imprisonment under the laws of the breakaway republic.