Moldova needs system changes in order to eradicate the phenomenon of torture that feels at home in Moldova, said the director of the Center for Human Rights of Moldova and chairman of the National Preventive Mechanism against Torture Anatolie Munteanu. According to him, changes should be instituted at internal level not only to show that the situation in Moldova is improving.
In a news conference at IPN, Anatolie Munteanu said that 719 complaints about inhuman treatment were recorded in 2013, a decrease of 26% on several years ago. But statistics not always show the real state of affairs. It’s not clear why the number of complaints decreased – because torture is not so widely used or because the people do not report these cases.
For the first time in 2013, two police officers were sentenced to jail for use of torture. According to Anatolie Munteanu, the creation of the anti-torture section at the Prosecutor General’s Office is one of the greatest results achieved by the government in fighting this phenomenon.
The director of the Center for Human Rights said that special attention should be paid to the detention conditions as Moldova lost most of the cases at the ECHR because of them. “Penitentiary No. 13 is a leader by the number of convictions. The country was obliged by the ECHR to pay about €800,000 damages over the detention conditions in this penitentiary,” stated Anatolie Munteanu.
The news conference involved the heads of the regional representative offices of the Center for Human Rights. Anatolie Cravchenko, head of the Cahul representative office, said the detention conditions in remand centers in this district ago were disastrous several years. Two years ago, the Ministry of the Interior found the necessary financial resources and improved them.
Between June 26 and July 25, the Center for Human Rights is carrying out an anti-torture campaign in a move to promote zero tolerance to bad treatments. The campaign includes such events as meetings with employees of penitentiaries, police inspectorates and military units, and a radio contest entitled “Stop Torture”, which is intended for teens and young people. The contest, organized in concert with the Youth Department of Radio Moldova, will take place within the Hot Show program that is broadcast daily at 6pm, between July 14 and July 25.
