Dorin Chirtoaca: Those who remove evidence of crime cannot be witnesses

Mayor of Chisinau Dorin Chirtoaca considers that the reinstatement of 24 of the 25 police officers investigated as part of an internal inquiry into the April 2009 events conducted by the Ministry of the Interior in posts is a proof that the existing system tries to protect all its components. In a news conference on May 5, Dorin Chirtoaca said that these police officers, who had been in the Great National Assembly Square on the night of the protests, cannot be witnesses because they broke the Police Law. They did not help the persons in difficulty, but allowed maltreating young people. Moreover, the police officer Ion Perju was the first not the last officer who hit Valeriu Boboc, who was kicked by at least 3-4 policemen, the mayor said. Dorin Chirtoaca stressed the statements that the police officers who kicked young protesters seating on the ground could not be identified are not serious. “Except for three cases, the participation of the other police officers in the suppression action in the central square was confirmed so that they are accomplices in the murder of Valeriu Boboc,” said the mayor. According to Dorin Chirtoaca, the criminal police chief Ruslan Saakian was obliged to give testimony about the young man's murder as he was the one who dragged Boboc and threw him into the police car Niva. After Boboc's body was found near the Emergency Hospital, the Buiucani police commissariat launched an investigation. Saakian had to collect relevant information and inform the Prosecutor General's Office and the Ministry of the Interior about the murder, but he hid facts, the mayor explained. “Those who remove evidence of the crime cannot be witnesses. The witnesses include the beaten young men who were taken to police stations by cars,” Dorin Chirtoaca said. During a news conference on Wednesday, the deputy head of the Ministry of the Interior's Internal Security and Investigations Division Iurie Maximov announced that 24 police officers were reinstated in posts as no evidence proving their guilt was found. In a Government's meeting, Minister of the Interior Victor Catan provided the same explanation. The materials are examined by the Prosecutor's Office and if new proofs are discovered, measures will be taken in accordance with the law, the minister said. Ion Perju and Iacob Gumenita are investigated in the case of Valeriu Boboc's death.