One of the alleged leaders of a group suspected of organizing a number of extremist movements, such as “Scutul Social” (“Social Shield”), “Restruct Moldova” and “Russkii Leghion” (“Russian Legion”) (Moldova), was arrested as a result of searches carried out at the homes of persons suspected of forming part of the group. The police found and seized masks and balaclavas that the suspects supposedly wore when committing offenses as well as knives, cartridges, memory sticks and other corpus delicti.

According to the Prosecutor General’s Office, the criminal case against this group was started in October. During 2014, pursuing the goal of inciting hatred, national, ethnic and racial division, for social hatred purposes, the members of the group distributed messages of an extremist character through forums on entertainment and social networking sites. Allegedly, representatives of the given organization had been also involved in violent acts of a discriminatory character.

In a news conference on November 25, representatives of the Information Center “Genderdoc-M” said that a number of homosexuals became victims of the extremist actions of the movement “Scutul Social”. They presented a video showing how members of the group ill-treat and humiliate persons of a nontraditional sexual orientation.