Events to commemorate the victims of the April 6-8 violent protests in Chisinau were staged in Romania on Wednesday evening. The Moldovan students studying in Romania and their Romanian fellows gathered in the squares in Bucharest, Iasi, Brasov, Sibiu and another 11 towns, Info-Prim Neo reports. “We came to support those who protected their constitutional rights and want to be free, those who became victims of police abuse,” Mihaela Ursu, student of the Bucharest Academy of Economic Studies and graduate of the Chisinau-based high school Ion Creanga, said while in the University Square in Bucharest. “We lit candles in memory of the young persons who had died during those days. We are glad that the suffering of our mates was not in vain. Democracy triumphed in Moldova!” The participants recited poems, sang patriotic songs and expressed their disapproval of the governments that use force against protesters. “Moldova is a free and democratic country. The use of torture is inadmissible. By their actions, the Communists showed their helplessness, while the July elections brought their police rule to an end,” said Iulia Lupascu from Balti, who studies at the State University of Bucharest. Many of those who came to the University Square had been witnesses to the April events and had been even under arrest. “I remember with terror those events. I was beaten and held in horrible conditions in police stations. I was lucky as my parents employed good lawyers and I was released in three days,” said Ilie Novac, who is now a student of the Romanian-American University in Bucharest. “They beat us for any word, for any look. I did not believe it was possible nowadays, but I'm proud that I did something for my country.” Dumitru Sorbala, the president of the Association of Young Romanians from Abroad, told from Iasi that at 20.00 the Bessarabian and Romanian students together with young persons from 19 Romanian towns, four of which from Moldova, and Moldovans from Rome and Berlin kept a moment of silence. “It was an action of human solidarity,” said Dumitru Sorbala. Octavian Apostol, student in Brasov, said that at 20.00 the students came together to keep a moment of silence in the Council Square. A service to commemorate the four protesters who died was held at the Annunciation Church in the morning. “We came to support our brothers from over the Prut and those who died as real heroes as a result of the April 7 events. Sibiu is together with Chisinau,” Sergiu Rizea, the head of a Romanian youth organization, told Vocea Basarabiei radio station in an interview. Ordinary people, politicians, public servants and NGO members gathered on Wednesday evening in central Chisinau to lit candles in memory of the victims of the April violent protests and prayed for the four young men who had died during and after the protests. The rally was organized by the initiative group “Impotriva Torturii” (“Against Torture”) to mark six months since the protests. Victor Boboc, the father of Valeriu Boboc, who was beaten to death by police officers, also attended the rally. “I know it will be hard, but time will reveal the truth,” he said. Four persons died and several hundred people were maltreated and tortured as a result of the April protests against the results of the parliamentary elections.