In the Transnistrian region, tens of young people are arrested, kept in detention and convicted of…terrorism, treason and espionage. While in detention, they are tortured, their execution by shooting is set up, and they are left to get ill with tuberculosis or other serious diseases. The residents of the left bank of Nistru remain hostages of a grave situation: although they are Moldovan citizens, the state’s constitutional authorities cannot protect them against the abuses of the Tiraspol illegal regime. From the beginning of this year, the European Court for Human Rights (ECHR) has started the urgent examination of two cases similar to the Ilaşcu case, in which Russia was condemned.
The experts of Promo-LEX Association who monitor human rights in the Transnistrian region say that people are very easily detained, arrested, and convicted on the left bank of Nistru. All judgments are illegal as they are issued by the so-called ‘courts’ and ‘law-enforcement bodies’ that are unconstitutional and thus cannot make justice. The Moldovan constitutional bodies are obliged to take action in each such case; however, many times this does not happen.
Arrested for Terrorism
Pavel Juicov, 37 years old, is lawyer and has opened a legal office in Tighina this year. In March, he signed up in the electoral run for Tighina City Council. He had high ambitions and wanted to change many things in the city. But he never got to participate in the elections because he was arrested one night by the Transnistrian militia and incarcerated. On the following day, his parents were to find out from the news on the local television that their son was the leader of a terrorist grouping.
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Alexandru Juicov, |
“They came at night, took him without telling us where and why,” says Alexandru Juicov, Pavel’s father. “The Minister of Interior appears in the evening newscast and says that a terrorist grouping had been arrested and our son, in handcuffs, is shown in the background. That video was played a number of times on Tighina television, for several days in a row, with the news that a criminal grouping had been annihilated being voiced over,” the young man’s parents tell us. The Juicovs are Russian by nationality and have Russian citizenship. They came to Tighina forty years ago as young specialists. Alexandru Juicov’s father worked in the military industry until retirement. Disappointed with what is happening now in Tiraspol and Tighina, Alexandru says that “nobody is safe and anyone can be arrested and incarcerated. And then some blame is labeled on them because the law-enforcement bodies have to show that they work and are not paid in vain.” While in detention, Pavel Juicov was on hunger strike for 15 days in protest against the accusations brought against him. His parents are worried about his health. “Vardanian’s case bowled over the public opinion and many people protect him and demand his release because he is a journalist. And the Armenian community is also strong. But there is no one to protect our Pavlic,” the young man’s father laments.
He Became Dubious for Speaking Many Languages
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Natalia Mozer, |
The family of another young man who is in detention in Tighina is also worried about his health. Boris Mozer is 22 and has been under arrest for 1.5 years already for alleged damages caused to Interdnestrcom Telephone Company, as well as to Sheriff Company with which he had no connections whatsoever. Natalia Mozer, his mother, with whom we met in Tiraspol, told us through what ordeal her son had been going through, being detained without a court judgment since November 2008. She said that they had been told to compensate the alleged damages and that they had already sold the apartment in which her son lived, added all their savings to that and even borrowed some more money to be able to collect the amount claimed; however, the amount of the damages claimed meanwhile grew. “People from Sheriff Security Service call us home and continue to ask for money. We don’t even know to whom we are giving this money. And how much more we will have to give if we see how our child is dying…” Natalia Mozer tells us in pain. “We asked for his release on bail because we fear he might die. He has hypertension and asthma. Even the medical assistant told us to do something because his condition is serious. But they refused our request. Moreover, we were threatened that they would announce us in international search as terrorists. When I heard that, I fainted.” His parents believe that their son had been arrested because he had many contacts with foreign countries, speaks fluently several languages and was freely communicating with his clients from abroad, especially from the USA. After having claimed violations of rights to the local authorities, the Mozer family started to be threatened. “I told the investigator we would look for justice. At which he said – it will be even worse if you complain,” Natalia Mozer adds.
Death Sentence
Boris Mozer’s case has been communicated this year by ECHR after Matcenco’s case, similar to Ilaşcu’s case (Decision of 24 June 2004) and claims serious violations of human rights in the Transnistrian region, Promo-LEX experts say. This organization has criticized many times the Moldovan and Russian governments for the ignorance with which the complaints of the population of the left bank of Nistru are examined, including cases of murder, kidnapping, tortures, illegal convictions and deprivation of freedom.
Iurie Matcenco was arrested in February 2010, being illegally deprived of freedom and detained in Penitentiary 3 of Tiraspol. In the penitentiary, his death execution by the Transnistrian intelligence agency (MGB) was set up, he was beaten up in the MGB offices by MGB officers and later by the militia. He couldn’t take the maltreatment anymore and had to declare a hunger strike because that was the only possibility to attract attention to the maltreatments he had been subjected to and to benefit from the medical aid.
On 15 March 2010, the ECHR decided to consider Iurie Matcenco’s case in a priority regime. “This case raises important issues with regard to the jurisdiction and responsibility for the situation with the rights of detainees in the detention facilities of the Transnistrian region of the Republic of Moldova,” reads a declaration made public by Promo-LEX. In Matcenco’s case, the defendant governments – Russia and Moldova – were given time until 12 May 2010 to explain the set up death execution of Iurie Matcenco by the MGB agents, his torture, illegal deprivation of freedom and refusal of medical assistance during his 44 day hunger strike.
Ill with Tuberculosis
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Efrosenia Bunici, |
Dumitru Simeniuc, 21 years old, student at Tighina College of Medicine, was also arrested in the middle of the night because he allegedly tried to buy groceries with a counterfeit 25 Transnistrian rouble banknote, which values 2 Euros. The young man got ill with tuberculosis in the pretrial detention facility. The illness has progressed now but the penitentiary does not have the necessary drugs for his treatment. His parents bought a part of the drugs in Odessa but they are not allowed to bring them to him. Eufrosenia Bunici, the young man’s grandmother, told us that they had also received a certificate from the doctor who examined him and who writes in the certificate that the young man is in a death danger. Although, as his grandparents say, nothing was found during the search to confirm that their grandson had something to do with the counterfeiting of money, the authorities refuse to release him at least for the treatment that he needs. “Our grandson told us that two other young men from his cell have died recently, also from tuberculosis. We asked for his release to get treatment but they wouldn’t listen to us. They talk about human rights. But they don’t do anything about it. They kill the way they used to. I think in this way: if he is guilty, he must be held accountable, but he shouldn’t be killed in such way,” the grandmother laments. Her husband and she are natives of the district of Orhei. They studied in Tighina and remained to work and live there. Now they are desperate and don’t know where to look for justice.
Impotent Prosecutor’s Office
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Valentina Bradu, |
The Moldovan Prosecutor’s Office has two territorial subdivisions that have the task to protect the rights of the citizens living in the towns located under the jurisdiction of Tiraspol administration. The Dubăsari Prosecutor’s Office has its premises in the village of Ustia, which is located on the right bank of Nistru. The second subdivision is located in Tighina. These two institutions work in difficult conditions and their own staff needs protection. The Dubăsari Prosecutor, Valentina Bradu, says that it is virtually impossible to conduct criminal investigations in the localities that are controlled by the Tiraspol regime. “In order to investigate cases we must travel to Transnistria on our own responsibility, risking arrests and humiliation by the Transnistrian militia. Unfortunately, the cases we start do not reach the court, being suspended most of the times, but it is important for us to conduct investigations as much as we can,” Dubăsari Prosecutor says. We have had cases when our officers were arrested when crossing the border to go on vacation; they were even incarcerated and tried, the prosecutor specifies.
Judges Hold Moldovan Citizenship
According to Valentina Bradu, many of the suspects – militia officers, investigators, prosecutors or even judges in Transnistria who have usurped their official qualities – are also citizens of Moldova, Russia or Ukraine and, theoretically, it is possible to issue international arrest warrants in their names. However, this is not done on the grounds that this may generate new challenges from Tiraspol. “Such individuals who abusively arrest our young people judge them according to obsolete laws, have Moldovan citizenship, move in and out of the country using Moldovan passports and enjoy all the privileges granted to them by the Moldovan citizenship.” Prosecutors now hope that maybe after the conflict is settled it will be possible to hold accountable those who are guilty of many wrongdoings in this region.
In Same Building with Transnistrian Militia
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Ion Tcaci, |
Since 1992, Tighina Prosecutor’s Office has been located in the same building with the Transnistrian militia. At the entrance, militia officers rigorously register each visitor to the Moldovan law-enforcement bodies and then exert pressure on the people who come to them. Tighina Prosecutor, Ion Tcaci, says that the separatist authorities do everything possible so that the citizens do not find out that there are a Moldova Prosecutor’s Office and Police Station in the city, discrediting and thwarting those institutions’ activities. “People are subjected to pressure and intimidated to not come to us. We have had seven complaints this year and we have started criminal cases based on three of them. When we address the Transnistrian structures, we either receive formal answers or no answers at all.” One of the criminal cases started by the Tighina Prosecutor’s Office relates to a young person who had been kidnapped by the MGB representatives, taken to Nistru, pointed a gun at and told to leave the region or else he would be shot.
Citizens Do Not Know They Can Seek Help from Constitutional Structures
Ion Manoli, Director of Promo-Lex, says that such cases show the state of things in the region where people are very easily arrested and detained in inhuman conditions. “Invoking such crimes as terrorism, high treason or espionage is the easiest method for intimidating the population. Due to such incriminations, the population becomes much more careful about what they say and what they do, and this situation is convenient to the local regime to maintain its influence and fear among the people. I have come across cases when people had been arrested and convicted for the simple reason that they had property and money. We have information that some paid a lot of money to get those people out of prison; however they are is still behind the bars.”
We have come to this situation because during the 18 years after the Moldovan-Russian war, since 1992, the Moldovan constitutional authorities have abandoned this region, leaving the local regime to strengthen its structures, the expert says. Manoli specifies that ‘many other people have been in the situation of Vardanian, Matcenco or Mozer. But they don’t seek help from the constitutional authorities anymore due to lack of credibility. Moldovan law-enforcement bodies ignore the constitutional rights of the people living on the territory controlled by the Tiraspol administration and deny any responsibility for the state of things in that space. Russia and Moldova, as parties directly involved in the 1992 war, are not displaying a real will for identifying solutions and creating an efficient mechanism for protecting human rights in Transnistria. The mechanism created in 1992 remains a formal one for the authorities and inefficient for the rights of the inhabitants of that region.”
Moreover, a big part of the citizens on the left bank of Nistru do not even know that they have the right to turn to the prosecutor’s office for help or that there are courts for the eastern districts of Moldova.
Solutions without Solution
The well-known militant for human rights Stefan Urâtu who has recently become advisor to the Moldovan President thinks that the Moldovan law-enforcement bodies must start criminal investigations in each case of human rights violations in the Transnistrian region, to collect evidence, to invite the persons involved, and if they refuse to appear, to issue arrest warrants and announce them in international search. If they show up in Chişinău or if Interpol finds them, they should be brought to Chisinau and tried in accordance with the Moldovan law. However, the prosecutors do not believe that this would be a viable solution for ensuring the rights in the region controlled by a non-constitutional regime. Ion Manoli shares Urâtu’s opinion. “It is one thing when you come only with words to the negotiations on the Transnistrian issues or in the discussions with foreign diplomats, and it is a totally different thing when you come and put piles of cases on the table,” the expert stresses. The Head of the Office for Reintegration under the State Chancery of Moldova, Ion Stăvilă, said during a meeting of the Investigative Journalists Club that his Office was in charge of the observance of human rights on the left bank of Nistru but that it was not competent to undertake investigations, which are part of the duties of law-enforcement bodies. The Office is now monitoring about ten cases, among which the cases of Matcenco, Mozer, Vardanian, Cazac and others, about which international bodies have been notified, Stăvilă says. The lawyer Alexandru Postică, who represents at ECHR the cases of the young people detained by the Tiraspol unconstitutional bodies, said that “if the Moldovan and Russian authorities are not willing to find solutions in imposing respect for human rights in the Transnistrian region, we will oblige them to do it through the ECHR mechanism. The inhabitants of the region left of Nistru are entitled to efficient protection from the defendant states. It is the obligation of both parties to contribute to protecting human rights and fundamental freedoms in this area and to respect the European Convention.”
Promo-LEX experts have lately attested an increase in the number of complaints from citizens from the Transnistrian region. They suppose this is especially due to the wide coverage of Vardanian’s case.
This investigation has been produced as part of the Journalists for Human Rights Media Campaign, implemented by the Investigative Journalism Center with the support of the US Embassy in Moldova. The responsibility for this article belongs to the author.