Lawyer Veaceslav Turcan, who defends the rights of the former head of the so-called Interior Department of the left bank of the Dniester, Ghenadie Kuzmiciov "abducted last summer on the Chisinau-Leușeni route" and sentenced to 13 years in prison for smuggling, demands from Tiraspol representatives, and the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Chisinau, unrestricted access to his client, as well as the access of doctors chosen by Ghenadie Kuzmiciov and his family.

At an IPN press conference, Veaceslav Turcan, said that the access to a doctor and lawyer of personal choice cannot be arbitrarily restricted by those who control the penitentiary system in the Transnistrian region.

The lawyer says that he is not allowed to meet his client on the grounds that he would be a foreign citizen. And the relatives, who are entitled to only three meetings a year, even then communicate with him by telephone, behind a glass wall.

The lawyer claims that, because many illegalities were committed in relation to his client, he applied to the European Court, at the end of last year, with a complaint against the Russian Federation, concerning serious violations of human rights and freedoms. The complaint was registered in January this year. Based on the opinion of the European Court, the lawyer says that he should have had access to Kuzmiciov.

Veaceslav Turcan reiterated that Kuzmiciov was severely beaten. "The Russian authorities have to investigate what happened to Kuzmiciov during his detention because they control the Transnistrian territory and because he is still a Russian citizen," says the lawyer.

He says that his client is involved in a criminal case investigated by the Chisinau Prosecutor's Office, where he has the status of victim. In the second case he was convicted for smuggling in the Transnistrian region.

Nicolae Tulușniuc, a relative of Kuzmiciov, who was present when he was abducted, believes that it was a purely political detention and condemnation, in the context of forwarding his candidacy to the position of "president" of Transnistria.

Former head of the so-called Interior Department of the left bank of the Dniester, Ghenadie Kuzmiciov, was sentenced to 13 years in prison for smuggling with the execution of the sentence in a closed-type prison. He was stripped of his titles and distinctions. Kuzmiciov, who was also head of the Transnistrian customs office, was found guilty of creating a criminal group that took bribes to facilitate the smuggling of goods.