A number of 74 police officers were questioned as witnesses within the investigation opened into the public disorder during the April 24 protest mounted in Chisinau. An arrest warrant for 20 days was issued in the name of the young man who was detained in the evening of April 24 for active participation in the mass disorder and for hurting of a police officer, said the head of the Investigations Division of the General Police Inspectorate Grigore Moga, quoted by IPN.
According to him, 43 police officers were injured as a result of the violent acts, with 19 of these needing medical care. “Seventeen police officers went to see a doctor on the same day. The next days, the policemen from other local subdivisions of the Inspectorate, who were engaged in maintaining and restoring public order in Chisinau, went to local polyclinics and were offered medical assistance,” stated Grigore Moga. He added that the five police officers who were admitted with brain injury, fractures and other traumas are still in the Ministry of the Interior’s hospital.
It was established that three vehicles parked on Bulgara St were damaged. The damage was estimated at about 30,000 lei. The Ministry’s subdivisions were caused damage of 8,000 lei following the stealing or damaging of special individual protection devices.
Three persons complained that they were abused by the police during the protest.
In a press briefing after the April 24 protest, the head of the General Police Inspectorate Alexandru Panzari said that a criminal case was started over public disorder on Bulgara St. Those involved in mass disorder accompanied by use of violence and damaging of property face four to eight years in jail.
Thousands of people from different regions of Moldova took part in an antigovernment protest organized by the Civic Platform “Dignity and Truth” in Chisinau on April 24. These demanded that the current government should resign and early parliamentary elections should be held simultaneously with the presidential elections, and that those who committed the bank fraud should be held accountable. They also demanded that politician and businessman Vlad Plahotniuc be punished for his wrongdoings. The people protested on Bulgara St, where Vlad Plahotniuc reportedly lives, and then in front of the Global Business Center, where this is said to have his head office.
