When a person is placed in a remand prison or in penitentiary, the state is obliged to ensure all the conditions so that the dignity and human integrity of this person are respected, said the lawyers for the family of Andrei Braguța, who died in prison in 2017. They regret that a definitive and irrevocable decision in the started cases does not yet exist. Moreover, the lawyers warn that such cases can repeat as Penitentiary No. 16, where Andrei Braguța was held, does not have the necessary medical accreditation. Given the COVID-19 pandemic, the risks are even higher.
In a news conference at IPN, Promo-LEX lawyer Victoria Gamurari said that two doctors of Penitentiary No. 16 are accused in one of the cases related to the death of Andrei Braguța. They are accused of violation of the rules and methods of providing medical assistance that led to the young man’s death. This is a hospital-type institution that has worked since 2002, but it hasn’t yet received the required accreditation.
The lawyer noted that Andrei Braguța, according to the medial examination report of September 2017, died because of purulent bronchopneumonia. General problems derive from this case amid the COVID-19 pandemic. In a response to an inquiry made by Promo-LEX, the Ministry of Justice said that 19 confirmed cases of COVID-19 were reported in penitentiary institutions by August 20. All of the infected persons have been treated at Penitentiary No. 16. The penitentiary has only one ventilator, while Penitentiary No. 13 does not have such a machine at all.
The family’s lawyer Victor Munteanu said three years have passed since this case, but no concrete actions have been taken to prevent similar cases in the future. “The family expects not only justice in this case. Justice is not fully done when only the persons found guilty are punished. Justice is when the family has satisfaction that such cases will not repeat. The authorities should implement mechanisms that would maximally exclude situations of the kind. If a person is isolated and the state assumes responsibility for this, it should ensure all the conditions for this person to have his dignity and human integrity respected,” he stated.
The conference “Three years of death of Andrei Braguța. Evolutions and (in)actions” forms part of the series of conferences held in the framework of IPN’s project “Injustice Revealed through Multimedia”. IPN Agency does not assume the right to decide if the organizers of news conferences are right in the cases about which they will speak as this is the exclusive prerogative of justice, but the exaggeratedly long examination period of these cases, which is much longer than the law allows, can be considered an act of evident unfairness and injustice. IPN News Agency does not bear responsibility for the public statements made in the public sphere by the organizers of news conferences.
