The Transnistrian customs and security services attacked two Moldovan nationals in Varnita village in Anenii Noi district on February 5. One of them was later abducted. Details and assessments of the incident were given at a news conference on February 8 by representatives of the nongovernmental association Promo-Lex, which monitors this case, Info-Prim Neo reports. Petru Panteliciuc, one of the victims, said that on that day he and his brother were selling potatoes in Varnita. They had all the necessary documents issued by the mayor’s office of the village. A so-called ‘customs officer’ from Transnistria asked them to present the documents for inspection, but they refused. The ‘customs officer’ called two men and a woman dressed in civilian clothes, who approached and produced badges showing they were of the Transnistrian security service. Petru Panteliciuc explained that they were attacked after he tried to seek help from the Varnita police. According to him, his brother Viorel was beaten, shackled and taken into an unknown direction. Also, the Transnistrian representatives confiscated their mobile phones, documents and their personal car with four tonnes of potatoes in it. According to the president of Promo-Lex Ion Manole, from unofficial sources they learned that Viorel Panteliciuc was sentenced to three days under arrest for putting up resistance to the ‘customs authorities’ and would be set free on February 8 in the afternoon. Yet, Manole said, the regional security employees could fabricate evidence and prosecute the two men as they had been threatened that arms, munitions and drugs could be easily found on them. The jurist of Promo-Lex Pavel Postica said that the association asked the constitutional authorities to take steps to release Viorel Panteliciuc and transfer him and his goods to the territory controlled by the Moldovan authorities. Though informed about the given incident, the members of the Joint Control Commission refused to go to the scene, arguing that it was a smuggling-related case. According to Postica, the conflict concerns the regional security and the Commission should get involved. The representatives of Promo-Lex consider that such incidents are created artificially, the victims being used as pawns during the talks. They question the necessity of spending so much money from the Moldovan budget on maintaining the Joint Control Commission’s huge apparatus, the talks’ format and the peacekeepers. Ion Manole says that after Romania was eliminated form the talks, constitutional authorities’ steps aimed at solving the Transnistrian conflict became useless and impotent. At the same time, the president of Promo-Lex doubts the efficiency of the law enforcement bodies from the security zone, especially of the Bender police, in the circumstances in which Russian military vehicles and troops were stationed on the territory of the Police Department and there is no Moldovan flag and inscription on the building.