The Braguța case is regrettable and emblematic. It tested the whole system and this didn’t cope as a person died while in state custody, Ilie Chirtoacă, director of the Integrity and Anticorruption Program of the Legal Resources Center from Moldova, stated in an interview with IPN.
According to the international standards, when a person in state custody dies, the state is the first that should provide explanations. There was a lot of hesitation in this case and the investigation itself started much too late, considers Ilie Chirtoacă, who noted that five years have passed since that tragic event, but not much progress has been made in this case.
Several positive things occurred yet in the period: standard operating procedures and clearer rules were introduced and the police officers were trained how to act when they arrest a person and what elements they should take into account primarily when there are weaknesses and when that persons needs to be remanded in custody.
Regrettably, the investigations needed to establish the facts and to identify those who are responsible for the death of Braguța are late. Except for the shift head – the police officer who was in charge of the wellbeing of Andrei Braguța – no person was convicted by a definite court decision as a result of the over 100 hearings. Policemen, guards, medical staff are investigated but there is no final verdict that would clearly show that a person is definitely to blame, said Ilie Chirtoacă.
The Braguța case revealed the weaknesses of the system and represents for Moldova a lesson teaching that the persons under arrest need to have their essential rights, including medical care, guaranteed and the death of a person or the causing of injuries to a person in police custody should be investigated appropriately. Those from the administration of the penitentiary department or the Ministry of Justice bear responsibility, especially because during the first days they informed that the person died from pneumonia and this was actually not true, stated Ilie Chirtoacă.
The interview entitled “Cases of injustice and the way in which they influenced the amendment of national legislation” was conducted as part of IPN News Agency’s project “Support for the Justice Reform through multimedia coverage of cases of alleged injustice”.
