The head of the Armenian diaspora in Moldova Venera Gasparean made a request to the Secretary General of the Council of Europe Thorbjorn Jagland, asking this to take under his control the complaints they submitted to the European Court of Human Rights about the violation of the rights of her son David Davitean, who was sentenced illegally. According to Venera Gasparean, this is not a simple, but a political case to persecute the families of Armenian ethnicity.
David Davitean was arrested in October 2016 for complicity in the attempt to murder banker Gherman Gorbuntsov, together with his ex-brother-in-law Vitalie Proca. This June he was sentenced to 16 years in jail in an older case of robbery. Venera Gasparean said her son is innocent and the case was fabricated in an attempt to justify the illegal actions against her family.
In a news conference at IPN, Venera Gasparean reminded that her son was arrested because he would have been an accomplice to the attempt to murder Gorbuntsov in the absence of evidence, but was later sentenced based on other charges, in a fabricated case, his rights to a fair trial being violated. David is held in a cell located in the penitentiary’s basement and is very sick. He was diagnosed with spinal disk herniation and brain tumor. During many months, David had no meeting with the family. When he is transported to the court of law to even to the hospital, he is escorted in conditions of maximum security, with tens of masked men, as if he is a very dangerous criminal.
Lawyer Ludmila Bolocan said that David Davitean was sentenced to 16 years’ imprisonment for acts that he didn’t commit. Together with the previous arrests, he has been held for 12 months and this is longer than the law allows. He should be set free until a definitive judgment is passed.
“Under Article 408 of the Penal Procedure Code, if the sentence can be appealed, its implementation is suspended. Under Article 466, the sentence can be applied when it becomes definitive. Consequently, the sentence against the defendant is not definitive, but this continues to be held in penitentiary No. 13. At the current stage, we obtain only answers in the form of letters that we cannot challenge. We ask for an answer in the form of an ordinance so that we could challenge it,” said the lawyer.
Another lawyer of the family Alexandru Botnariuc said that no evidence was provided against David and the accusations are totally unfounded. The case shouldn’t have even reached the court as there are all reasons to nullify the orders based on which this was started. The lawyers wrote applications to the European Union and say they have enough proofs to plead the case at the ECHR.
