The inspector on duty, the inferior inspector and the senior officer of the remand prison’s guard service and the assistant commander of the Special Escort and Guard Battalion of the Chisinau Police Division were suspended from posts, IPN reports.

The General Police Inspectorate said the three were suspended for the period of the internal inquiry initiated by the Personnel Inspection Division of the Inspectorate in order to elucidate all the circumstances of the death of Andrei Braguta.

The Ministry of Justice also announced the suspension of the deputy head of the Medical Service and two officers on duty at Penitentiary No. 13, the deputy chief of Penitentiary No. 16 and the psychiatrist. According to the Ministry, the functionaries were suspended for the period of the internal investigation so that the circumstances of this case could be examined objectively.

The 32-year-old man was arrested after he came into a conflict with patrolling inspectors who imposed a fine for speeding on him in the middle of August. On August 31, the General Police Inspectorate specified that the young man died from respiratory failure and purulent bronchopneumonia and this fact was confirmed by medical certificates. The bruises that the young man had on the body were the result of aggression on the part of his cell mates, who said that Braguta had a deviant behavior.

The Ministry of Justice opened an internal inquiry and requested the Prosecutor General’s Office to investigate the case of death of a young man in penitentiary No. 16. Deputy Minister of Justice Anatolie Munteanu told a news conference that Andrei Braguta entered the penitentiary system as a patient and medical examinations showed he needed to be under permanent supervision at the psychiatric unit of Penitentiary No. 16, which also has the status of psychiatric hospital. Two days later, the young man died.

The prosecutor in charge of this case said he didn’t know about the man’s mental disorders and learned about these during the investigation. For their part, lawyers of “Promo-LEX” Association said the man was arrested illegally and the way in which he was treated by the police led to the worsening of his mental state and, ultimately, to death.