Remand detention is used by the prosecution bodies to obtain either statements or admission of the guilt or cooperation with them, considers lawyer Victor Pantara. In a news conference at IPN, this said in many cases there are no reasons for the person to be arrested, but this is anyway placed in remand detention.
Giving a concrete example, the lawyer said that even if there were no reasonable suspicions, the instruction judge of the Balti Court issued a warrant for the arrest and then extended it against a young man who is a student and is to take exams. “This was done even if the young man has a place to stay, lives with his parents and practically does not have reasons to avoid the prosecution bodies. Moreover, it is not very clear what the young man is accused of. This allows me to say that the arrest is used by the law enforcement agencies to obtain evidence,” said the lawyer.
According to Victor Pantaru, the current situation differs from that witnessed eight-ten years ago, when the prosecution body used torture to get proofs, statements and admission. Now they use remand detention. The conditions in Penitentiary No. 13 are below any standard imposed by the Committee against Torture. “This way, the law enforcement agencies, acting coordinately, try to exert pressure on people to make them make statements or admit particular deeds. Personally, I thought that after 2009 I will not be witness to such actions. Regrettably, I cannot enjoy this reform that was announced by the upper level law enforcement agencies,” stated the lawyer.
Victor Pantaru also said that the lack of convictions at the European Court of Human Rights in the recent past is the clam before the storm and decisions showing that serious human rights violations were committed after 2009 too will definitely be passed.
In this connection, the lawyer referred to the situation of the English company Capital City Service Limited (CCS), saying this was subject to a raiser attack with the assistance of the law enforcement agencies of Moldova. According to him, action was taken to exert pressure on his client, who is the founder of the company, and other persons to force them make the wanted statements. The British and U.S. Embassies and the EU Delegation to Moldova were informed about this case and applications will be submitted to the ECHR over the arrests in this case.
