Promo-LEX, alongside another 120 civil society organizations of Europe, which are members of the Civic Solidarity Platform, submitted a Declaration to the OSCE Ministerial Council, which, among other issues, treats the situation of political prisoners in the Transnistrian region. In particular, the document highlights the cases of Victor Pleshkanov, Mihail Ermuraki and Vadim Pogorletski, who are illegally held on the left side of the Nistru for expressing opinions contrary to those of the regime in Tiraspol, IPN reports.

“The inconvenient persons or those who promote and formulate ideas that run counter to the propaganda or  the messages of the de facto administration are immediately subject to the procedures of the repressive system that lacks legitimacy and elementary guarantees,” noted Promo-LEX.

According to experts of the Association, Victor Pleshkanov is a civic activist from the Transnistrian region who was sentenced by an illegal tribunal in Tiraspol to three years and two months in jail. Over the last few years, he permanently had a speech and a position critical of the abuses committed in the Transnistrian region. Together with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, he criticized the abuses committed by the Russian army, including the illegal Russian presence on the left side of the Nistru.

Another activist from the region, Mihail Ermuraki, 73, was sentenced to three years and six months in jail for insulting the region’s “leader” and for denying the positive role of the peacekeeping mission on the Nistru.

Another similar case is that of Vadim Pogorletski. According to the “sentence”, he photographed a paramilitary unit in Tiraspol and disobeyed the request of the representative of the self-styled ministry of state security to stop photographing. He was accused of “treason”.

“Given the frequency and intensity of abuses on the left side of the Nistru, persecution of civic and political activists, limitation of the freedom of expression, existence of a reprehensive local “legal framework”, Promo-LEX Association reiterates the necessity of protecting the human rights, counteracting the phenomenon of immunity and immediately and unconditionally setting free all the political prisoners in the Transnistrian region,” runs the Association’s press release.

The Declaration was adopted in the Annual OSCE Parallel Civil Society Conference held in Skopje on November 29, 2023. The document was presented to the OSCE and the 57 participating states ahead of the 30th meeting of the OSCE Ministerial Council.