The case of Braguta, the young man who died in a penitentiary institution at the end of this August, reveals a system problem – the lack of a system of rules concerning the conduct of police officers when interacting with persons with mental disorders or deviant behavior. Such an opinion was stated in the program “Moldova live” on the public TV channel Moldova 1, IPN reports.

One of the lawyers for the Braguta family Vadim Vieru said the lack of such rules led to a tragic situation when citizen Andrei Braguta died as a result of ill-treatment.

Minister of the Interior Alexandru Jizdan admitted that the policeman on duty didn’t, but this wasn’t something unordinary. He said the court of law should pronounce on what made that police officer not to act. “We learned the lesson. If the police officers had known and there had been a certificate showing that the person had mental disorders, this wouldn’t have been placed together with other detainees,” said Alexandru Jizdan. Lawyer Vadim Vieru denied this assertion, saying the day Andrei Braguta was ill-treated, information that he was under the supervision of psychiatrists was available.

According to the programs director at the Institute of Public Policy Iurie Pantea, attempts are now being made to shift the responsibility for the death of Braguta onto the police, but they avoid speaking about the responsibility of society. This is an exceptional case that should not be extrapolated to cover the whole police force.

Seven persons – three inspectors of the remand prison of the Chisinau Police Division and four detainees – will appear before court in the case of Andrei Braguta. According to the Prosecutor General’s Office, the policemen are accused of allowing four cellmates of the victim to commit acts of torture against Andrei Braguta and of subjecting the man to inhuman treatment.