Nicolae Besedovschi, a veteran of the Ministry of Home Affairs, said that for 15 years he has been unable to recover his car that remained stuck at a customs post. He bought the unit of transport on a bank loan. In April 2005, when he was bringing the vehicle from the European Union, Moldovan customs officers asked money from him for allowing him to take the car into Moldova, but he refused to give bribe. In time, he went to many courts and other state institutions to be done justice, but all in vain.
In a news conference at IPN, Nicolae Besedovschi said that customs officers of the Cahul customs post in 2005 invoked the legal norm that bans the import of cars older than ten years. But the car hadn’t turned ten yet at that moment.
The veteran related that he went to court and used all the appeal ways possible. By a decision taken by the Chisinau City Appeals Court in 2005 and a decision made by the Supreme Court of Justice in 2006, all the proofs he obtained from state institutions, showing that the car was made in 1995, were rejected. Only the verbal statements of jurists of the Customs Service - that the vehicle was produced in 1994 - were accepted. In 2013, the Chisinau City Appeals Court and the Supreme Court of Justice accepted all the evidence that was earlier rejected and irrevocably ascertained that the unit of transport was made in 1995.
When he went with the court decision to the Customs Service, its representatives refused to clear the car for the reason that they implemented the decision of 2005. “During the 15 years, the governments changed, the ministers changed and the directors of the Customs Service changed, but the problem of our family, our property – the car we bought in the EU – is illegally kept on the state border, at the Cahul customs post, by acts of corruption,” stated Nicolae Besedovschi.
In February this year, the Râșcani Court rejected a new lawsuit filed by the veteran against the Customs Service. An application concerning discrimination was also rejected in March. “All our family’s attempts to recover our property are thwarted by corruption that exists in the Government of the Republic of Moldova and in the judicial system. The economic crisis in our family started in 2005, owing to corruption among state functionaries and to the unlimited protectionism enjoyed by these judges. Everyone is indifferent. The state institutions that should fight corruption suggest that our right will be restored only by protests. But the multiple protests mounted by me and my family are not heard and seen by the officials. Stop the wrongdoings. Stop corruption. Respect the rule of law and the basic freedoms!” asked the Nistru war veteran.
He also said that he does not have confidence in the European Court of Human Rights because relatives of Moldovan judges work as clerks there. “The lawyers of the Republic of Moldova are under the illusion that the ECHR will do justice,” noted Nicolae Besedovschi.
The news conference titled “Corruption at the Customs Service supported by the Government of the Republic of Moldova and protected by the judicial system during 15 years” forms part of the series of conferences held in the framework of IPN’s project “Injustice Revealed through Multimedia”. The project’s partner is the Lawyers Union of Moldova. IPN Agency does not assume the right to decide if the organizers of news conferences are right in the cases about which they will speak as this is the exclusive prerogative of justice, but the exaggeratedly long examination period of these cases, which is much longer than the law allows, can be considered an act of evident unfairness and injustice. IPN News Agency does not bear responsibility for the public statements made in the public sphere by the organizers of news conferences.