After more than five years of the April 2009 events, an investigation officer of the Centru Police Commissariat, accused of torturing a minor, was convicted, IPN reports. In a communiqué, the Prosecutor General’s Office (PGO) says that on April 9, 2009, the police officer beat a 16-year-old teen with a belt on the back, forcing him to admit that he stole things from the Parliament Building.

According to the PGO, in July 2011, the Botanica District Court acquitted the policeman, arguing that his deed didn’t contain elements of an offense. The prosecutors, who demanded five years behind bars for the police officer, appealed the decision to the Appeals Court. On December 21, 2011, the Chisinau Appeals Court acquitted again the officer. However, the Supreme Court of Justice ordered that the case be reexamined by another panel of judges of the Chisinau Appeals Court.

Recently, the penal board of the Chisinau Appeals Court found the policeman guilty of use of torture and sentenced him to five years in jail. He was yet put on probation for a three-year-period and was banned from holding responsible posts in the bodies of the Ministry of the Interior for a period of three years.

The decision can be yet challenged.

Since April 2009 until now, the courts of law convicted 30 police officers of abuse of power and use of torture. Only three of them got jail terms.