A police officer from Cirnateni village, Causeni, was sentenced to 3 years in prison and banned from being re-hired by the police for a period of 5 years for abusing three persons in three separate incidents.
The Prosecutor General's Office said in a press release that the officer had beaten up a suspected drug dealer in October 2008. Two days earlier, the officer pulled over a man riding a motorcycle and punched and kicked him for allegedly not stopping promptly enough. Later, in February 2011, he broke the jaw of a teenager at a local bar who ignored his instruction to go home. In addition to the fracture, the minor also suffered a brain trauma.
In 2013, the officer was convicted to 3 years' probation, but the prosecutors appealed the sentence as too mild, leading the Chisinau Court of Appeals to increase it to a custodial one. The sentence can be further appealed in the Supreme Court.