Chisinau mayor suspends financing of municipal police

Chisinau's general mayor Dorin Chirtoaca says he suspends the financing of the municipal police, “following the manner in which it has been acting lately.” The mayor refers to the police aggressing the Pro TV cameraman, Mihai Sambra, Info-Prim Neo reports. The mayor says he has been also been determined by “the behavior of the policemen headed by Chisinau commissar Eugen Axentiev” on October 5, when a number of Liberals were aggressed by the police in Chisinau's downtown last Sunday, as they were running “The Caravan against the Russian Army in Moldova.” “The police's actions are a grave abuse and a severe breech of the law, and it cannot be tolerated any longer,” the mayor says, mentioning his powers given by law. According to the mayor, suspending the financing will be enforced until the top police officers “present an ample and truthful report” about the Mihai Sambra case, and financial reports about “spending the public money, including the allocations received by the patrol having arrested and beaten Mihai Sambra till he fainted.” The deadline for the police to present the reports is October 13, 8.30. Dorin Chirtoaca will call the Chisinau Municipal Council to lower the allocations to the municipal police, “proportionally with the salaries received by the commissar, the chief of the municipal police, the commissar of Buiucani district {(Mihai Sambra was allegedly beaten in the Buiucani police's offices, e.n.)}, and by the other persons involved in dishonoring the police.” The mayor also says he will notify international bodies to consider the situation in Moldova, because “the practices are Stalinist, Communist, Soviet.” “It's a mammoth system dating from the Soviet era,” the mayor adds. The Chisinau police has been given 72 million lei from the municipal budget this year. 80% of the that money is the police's salaries, as 20% goes for endowment. The police lifted their September salaries. Dorin Chirtoaca says the activity of the police cannot thus be ceased and it's not possible to take a month to compile a report.