A detainee who served his sentence and was to be set free at the end of this year was sentenced to another 10 month in jail for alleged drug use. His wife says the criminal case was started based on fabricated evidence, by order of the administration of the Chisinau-based Penitentiary No.13, where the man is held.
In a news conference at IPN, Dina Shevchenko said that her husband is a skilful wood sculptor. As he refused to fulfill an order, he fell into the disgrace of a person from the penitentiary’s administration, who is taking revenge on him. Her husband does not drink and does not smoke and surely does not take drugs.
The man’s lawyer Ilie Rotaru, who is running in the November 30 parliamentary elections on the list of the Party “For Nation and Country”, said that somebody is making effort for Ruslan Shevchenko to remain in jail. Besides time for taking drugs, he also faces a jail term of four years as, when passing judgment in 2002, the judge omitted this four-year period, which extends his imprisonment term until 2018.
Ilie Rotaru also said that the man has two minor children aged 10 and 2 and this is a reason for him to be amnestied. The lawyer asked for an audience with Prosecutor General Corneliu Gurin and with the president of the Supreme Court of Justice Mihai Poalelungi, but hasn’t yet received an answer.
Vitalie Taulean, another candidate for MP running on the list of the Party “For Nation and Country”, said that this news conference was staged exclusively at the initiative of lawyer Ilie Rotaru, without consulting the party. The situation is serious as the human rights and freedoms are violated.
Vitalie Taulean noted that the party’s electoral platform contains a number of measures aimed at reforming the justice system, including the creation of an institution that would detect illegal court decisions and sentences. Today the judicial system is affected by corruption from up to down and the judges usually tolerate the illegalities committed by their colleagues.
