The procedure for collecting evidence in the cases concerning the April 7, 2009 events was defective. Many of the persons against whom criminal or administrative cases were started over involvement in mass disorder appeared later as victims of the use of torture or ill-treatment. This is a positive thing on the one hand. But, on the other hand, the criminal cases haven’t been completed yet. The court decisions in many cases are delayed and it’s not excluded that the victims are disappointed by this delay, program coordinator at the Legal Resource Center Ion Guzun stated for IPN.
Ion Guzun said that Parliament adopted a decision, by which it assessed the April 7, 2009 events from political viewpoint. Even if it is political, this document revealed certain systemic problems in the activity of a number of state institutions. “The document contains recommendations for different institutions of the executive and for the Supreme Council of Magistrates, which is the judicial power and should take these recommendations into account. The same refers to the Prosecutor General’s Office,” stated the jurist.
According to Ion Guzun, the provision of compensations to the victims of the April 2009 events is a good initiative, but the victims of those events will certainly want at least one punishment to be imposed on an institution in this case. “This fact is mentioned in the report of the commission of inquiry into the April 7 events and in the report of the then Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights Thomas Hammamberg. It is not an invention by Parliament or civil society. There were facts and evidence, but nobody laid emphasis on these cases and nobody was punished,” said the jurist.
He also said that the victims of the April 7 events will not take certain steps to discover the truth as many civil lawsuits filed by them depended on the criminal case.
”The civil case was suspended until the court passed judgment. But this is wrong. However, some of the victims managed yet to win, regardless of the criminal case. It is painful that the ECHR ruled in favor of the plaintiffs over the inefficient investigation of the April 2009 events, but the national courts did not,” said Ion Guzun.
On April 7 it is four years of the mass protests against the victory of the PCRM in the April 5, 2009 parliamentary elections, staged by young people. As a result of the rioting and mass disorder, the Parliament Building and the Presidential Office were devastated. One man lost his life.
