Lawyer Vitalie Taulean said four of his clients were unjustly sentenced to five years in jail each for acts of hooliganism that they didn’t commit. In a news conference at IPN, the lawyer stated that the sentence passed by the president of the Sangerei Court is a criminal one. According to him, the judge asked for money from the suspects for not jailing them and pressurized them into renouncing Taulean’s services.

Vitalie Taulean noted that everything started two years ago, when the four men were returning home and became involved in an insignificant road accident on the way. The men stopped a minibus to scold the driver who travelled with the high beams on. The banal incident lasted for a minute and caused no serious moral or pecuniary damage to the so-called victims, who later complained to the police. The assertions of the victims weren’t substantiated by evidence or by witness testimony.

The lawyer said that after the incident, the men went to the home of one of the men. Two persons appeared later there, who turned out to be police officers. The policemen, being under the influence, illegally came to the man’s home, on an invented reason. One of the police officers hit the owner of the house with a sled in the head. Another police team came later to perform searches for the reason that the men were suspected of stealing scarp iron. This fact wasn’t proven either.

According to Taulean, the two policemen were subject to the alcohol test, which showed that they didn’t drink. But the test results were falsified because the video evidence, which was presented at the news conference, clearly shows that at least one of the police officers was drunk. The policemen also falsified documents to show that the four suspects caused them injuries.

The men were recently sentenced to five years’ imprisonment each for acts of hooliganism.

The lawyer said that by this ‘criminal sentence’, the judge ruled that the violation of the domicile and ill-treatment of the owners in their own home should be punished with imprisonment. “Moreover, this corrupt and incompetent judge asked for money from the suspects through intermediaries and told them to renounce my services or they will be jailed. It happened so thus,” stated Taulean.

He noted he will appeal the decision to a higher court and will also file a complaint against the judge to the Supreme Council of Magistrates.