Woman held hostage in Bender has been released

Elena Dobrovitskaya, the 20-year-old woman kidnapped by the Bender militsyia three days ago, has been released today, June 19, Info-Prim Neo learned from Ion Manole, the head of the human rights organization Promo-Lex. Other details about the release are not yet known. At a news conference at Info-Prim Neo yesterday in the evening, Zinaida Ciuhnenko, the mother of the hostage, presented a video footage showing Elena's mother speaking on the phone with a Bender investigator, Vladislav Romanovschi. He is hear telling told the woman in an aggressive tone that her daughter wouldn't have been detained had she complied with the summons and appeared at the militsyia station. Promo-Lex chairman Ion Manole described the case as 'blackjacking' on the part of the Transnistrian militsyia. Doina Straisteanu, a lawyer with Promo-Lex, said the Moldovan Prosecutor General was obliged to react to the case, especially since the investigator is a Moldovan national. “The Prosecutor's Office should investigate on what grounds the investigator allowed himself to take hostages to ensure the continuation of the investigation”. Zinaida Ciuhnenko recounted that in March 2009 she felt sick while driving and accidentally struck a car of the Bender militsyia. Since then she was thrice remanded in Bender for 72-hour periods, during which she lost consciousness several times because of the inhuman detention conditions. he 20-year-old woman was detained by the Transnistrian militsyia two days ago and is held hostage in a remand unit because her mother had failed to appear before investigators when summoned.