The Department of Penitentiary Institutions (DPI) launched an internal inquiry to check the information provided in a news conference by the chairman of the public organization “Genavavita” Vitalie Czine. In a press release, the institution said any information and statement about the Department is a reason for taking investigation measures.

However, the DPI questions some of the statements about the administration of Penitentiary No. 2 of Lipcani, concerning a detainee suspected of disobedience of the legal demands of the prison’s administration.

The Department also said that in the recent past its administration has taken a series of steps in relation to the activity of Penitentiary No. 2 of Lipcani, in cooperation with the prosecution bodies. Last week, employees of the institution of the North Mixed Department carried out large-scale searches at the jail in Lipcani, where they seized banned things found on detainees and in hidden places.

A number of 100 new detention places were recently made available at the penitentiary in Lipcani. These meet all the requirements. Helped by European institutions, the penitentiary benefits from the reforms initiated to improve the detention conditions, to extend the social integration programs, to adopt a progressive prison system and to organize training seminars for the prison’s personnel.

In a news conference at IPN on March 30, chairman of the nongovernmental organization “Genavavita” Vitalie Czine presented videos transmitted to him by a detainee of Penitentiary No. 2 of Lipcani, where this speaks about the poor detention conditions and the fact that the criminal authorities in that prison cultivate hemp and prepare drugs with the knowledge of the administration. Vitalie Czine said that after the administration learned that the detainee transmitted images of hemp grown in the penitentiary to him it fabricated a criminal case against the man for the reason that he hit a guard. This fact is denied by the detainee and his cellmates. By such a move, the administration aims to modify the detention regime for this detainee into a more severe one and, consequently, to transfer him to another prison. The head of “Genavavita” filed a complaint to the Department of Penitentiary Institutions and the Prosecutor General’s Office. If these do not intervene, he is decided to go to international courts.