The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) found Moldova guilty in one of the cases concerning the April 7, 2009 events. Plaintiff Vitalie Iurcu, a 19-year-old man from Chisinau, will receive €12,000 damages and €1,500 court costs, IPN has learned from the public organization Jurists for Human Rights.

In the evening of April 7, 2009, the plaintiff, who was then 15, was going home through the center of Chisinau. At about 10pm, he was stopped by a group of persons in military uniforms and told to lie down with the hands behind his head. Even if he complied, he was kicked for several times in the head and the body. He was then released and ordered to go home, but, after walking several hundred meters, he was again stopped by a group of persons dressed in black and with balaclavas. He was told again to lie down. He was tortured and hit with the cudgel, including in the right eye. He was then taken to a police station together with other young people. There he was compelled to stay on his knees with the hands behind his head for about three hours in a basement. After he was set free the next day in the afternoon, he felt pain in the kidneys and had headaches. As a result of examinations, the doctors established that he suffered brain injury and psychological problems typical of the victims of torture.

In June 2009, the plaintiff filed a complaint to the Prosecutor General’s Office, but his application was rejected as groundless. He appealed the prosecutors’ decision to the Buiucani court, which quashed that decision on December 3, 2009. The legal proceedings over the accusations of ill-treatment are pending.

Vitalie Iurcu complained to the ECHR that while in detention he was ill-treated by the police and his complaint about ill-treatment wasn’t efficiently investigated. He also complained about the lack of an efficient remedy over his complaints and that he was held illegally. The Court unanimously held that Article 3 (prohibition of torture and inhuman and degrading treatment) was violated.