In nearly one year from the tragic April events, none of the over 300 individuals tortured and abusively detained has been rehabilitated. None of the police officers who maltreated the young people who had come to protest in the Great National Assembly Square has been convicted. The Prosecutor’s Office that took action very late does not have completed investigations and none of the prosecutors who administered the cases of the young people, who were barely standing during trials, and did not take a stand, has been held accountable or at least suspended from office. The silence and corporative solidarity of judges, prosecutors and police officers is hanging threateningly over the Moldovan democracy.
The only real punishments imposed after the April events have been the severe reprimand against Judge Dorin Popovici, the refusal of the Supreme Council of Magistracy (SCM) to extend the mandates to two judges Mihail Drosu and Sergiu Crutco who had participated in trying the cases of 7 April at the premises of the Chişinău General Police Station (CGPS), and severe reprimands and reduction to lower ranks of two prosecutors.
Recovered from shock, the victims of torture have started to speak. The horror scenes to which they were subject in the police stations and the manner in which they were tried excel even the horror movies.
Corridors of Death
Gheorghe Andronic from the village of Brânza district of Cahul is 50 and he is a phyto-sanitary inspector. In the afternoon of 7 April, he came to Chişinău to run some personal errands. Together with some of his villagers he went to the Great National Assembly Square. “There were a lot of people around; they all discussed what had happened and about the elections, when several police officers approached us. It was around 8.30 PM. One of them hit me with his weapon’s butt, another one tripped me up and I was knocked down. Then they threw me into a Mitsubishi Pick-up L300. Other several people were thrown over me. A masked policeman kept all the way his boot on my head. When I tried to turn my face aside because I couldn’t breathe, he shouted “Don’t move or I’ll shoot!” Gheorghe Andronic recounts. They were taken to CGPS where, together with many other people, they were put at the wall with our hands up and kept like that until 5 AM. Several policemen were passing by in turns and kicking them in whichever places they wanted, punching them under their ribs and in the kidney area. After they were documented, they were told to undress naked and were sent to cells. “I had a bad bruise on my leg that went away only in one month,” he recalls. “We were 21 people in a cell. We almost had no air to breathe. Nor could we lie down because there was no space. In the first days they were taking us out to sign minutes. We, those from Cahul were insistently told to write that we had been paid by Butmalai to come to the protests. Policemen from various sectors were brought to write minutes against us. I heard when one of them was telling another that he “would have problems with those minutes.” About six policemen beat us. And they beat very hard. One guy had his hands swollen and couldn’t bring the spoon to his mouth for three days. There were guys with their heads cracked, with their faces swollen; they couldn’t see with their eyes, others could barely walk…” Gheorghe Andronic recalls with horror. “I started to feel bad and I called the doctor; I told them I had problems with my heart and that I could die. They didn’t beat me hard after that. His brother Ion looked for him everywhere and found him only in several days, managing to transmit him the medicine for hypertension that he was taking.
Punishment Fair
On 9 April, Gheorghe Andronic was taken to an office on the second floor of CGPS. Other 20 people were standing by that door. Most of them had bruises or one could see they had been beaten and were feeling bad. Two people were in the office. Judge Dorin Popovici asked for explanations about the participation in the violent events in the center of Chişinău. Gheorghe tried to say that he had health problems and had been beaten but Judge Dorin Popovici told him plainly: “10 days are enough for you! Out!” His handcuffs were not removed and he didn’t have a lawyer. All the people from that cell were tried by 2 PM. All of them were sanctioned to 15, 10, 5 or 3 days of detention. Who had more bruises were sentenced to a bigger term of detention.
After the Arrest – Heart Operation
Andronic was kept in the cells of CGPS for 10 days without knowing that he could appeal the sentence. He later found out that the prosecutors protested that the punishments were too harsh and the Chisinau Court of Appeal canceled on 30 April the judgment issued by Judge Dorin Popovici and returned the case for retrial. The administrative case against Gheorghe Andronic was terminated only in June through the sentence issued by Judge A. Panov. After the detention his health worsened and in December 2009 he was operated on his heart.
Andronic’s lawyer Iurie Crăciuneac says that Judge Dorin Popovici violated his obligation to be impartial by reviewing the cases and holding the hearings at CGPS premises, did not ensure the public character of the court debates, based his decisions of imposing detentions exclusively on the policemen’s reports neglecting the de offenders’ depositions; did not prepare minutes of the hearings; had a conduct improper to his judicial robe, and others. Andronic was not explained his rights, the lawyer said, stressing that the most important aspect of the illegality of the actions of Judge Dorin Popovici was sentencing Andronic to detention for 10 days without there being minutes on his arrest attached to the case file and in the absence of evidence of Andronic’s guilt.
Gheorghe Andronic’s case is one of the 20 against the victims of torture and abusive arrests tried by Dorin Popovici that are currently reviewed by Promolex Association. Ion Manole, director of Promolex, says that a number of complaints have been filed with the SCM requesting that the maximum disciplinary sanctions be imposed on Judge Dorin Popovici. Leaving Dorin Popovici in the judicial office would make the other judges think that it is ok to work like that,” Ion Manole says.
“They beat me for an hour in the investigator’s office”
Alexandru Cucu was born in the village of Cetireni, district of Ungheni and is student at Moldova State University. He was arrested on 8 April, without any explanations, by several policemen who escorted him to CGPS. They opened an administrative case against him there on the grounds that he had allegedly “insulted police officers.” He was beaten in the most horrible way and forced to sign the minutes as prepared by the policemen. “On 9 April I was taken to the investigator’s office No.214 where the policemen beat me for an hour with a metal spoon on my head and punched me under my ribs. After that they brought me before Judge Dorin Popovici. They didn’t remove my handcuffs and two policemen stood by me at all times. I told the judge that I was forced to sign the minutes but he didn’t want to listen to me. He said: “I see your statements. Fifteen days are enough for you! Out!” On the same day, about 20 guys who were beaten the hardest were taken as far as to Vulcăneşti. “We arrived there after midnight and were met by the officers of the Special Destination Squad who started to beat us again.” All that time, Alexandru’s family was desperately looking for him. They didn’t know anything about him for a week. “We were not beaten only on the last days,” Alexandru says. When asked if he recalled the names or eventually how those who tortured him looked like, Alexandru mentions two names: Valeriu Bobuţac and Constantin Grozavu. The Military Prosecutor’s Office started criminal cases against the CGPS officers who tortured him. “When confronted, Bobuţac and Grozavu totally denied having tortured or forced me to sign false statements,” Alexandru Cucu says.
On 30 April, the Court of Appeal canceled the judgment issued by Dorin Popovici and on 18 May, Buiucani District Court dismissed the administrative case against Cucu. The court acknowledged the lack of legal evidence to confirm that Cucu had committed the offence incriminated and that his detention and escorting were groundless. In fact, the illegality of the judgment issued by Dorin Popovici was recognized, Alexandru Cucu’s lawyer Alexei Croitoru told us. He specified that a complaint was filed with the Disciplinary Board of the SCM in connection with that case, too, which requests that Judge Dorin Popovici be disciplinarily sanctioned.
Sanctioned to Put Up Appearances
We remind you that during the meeting of 12 January 2010, SCM members refused to extend the judicial powers until the age limit of 65 to the investigative judges Mihail Drosu (Buiucani District Court) and Sergiu Crutco (Centru District Court) who had participated in the trial of cases of 7 April at CGPS. The SCM concluded that trying cases in such spaces is a serious violation of the Constitution and of the Criminal Procedure Code, and contradicts Article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms that guarantees the right to a fair trial. In the same context, the Minister of Justice Alexandru Tănase, as member of SCM, took action in connection with the acts committed by Judge Dorin Popovici and started disciplinary proceedings against him on the grounds that he had committed similar violations and namely, tried cases within the Police Station, by violating a number of procedural provisions and guarantees.
The judges who participated in trying cases within the CGPS or sanctioned the illegal arrests based on the minutes prepared by the police officers are now considering the cases against those police officers and…are releasing them. We will come back in the following days with more details about such cases, as well as about the policemen who maltreated, about the prosecutors who didn’t take actions, and about the judges who made injustice upon order.