Prime Minister Vlad Filat had a discussion with Irina Vardanyan, the wife of journalist Ernest Vardanyan, who was arrested by the Transnistrian secret services in Tiraspol. Irina Vardanyan told the Premier that she needs legal aid and wants to see her husband free. Vlad Filat said that a number of approaches have been made and he hopes the journalist will be soon released, Info-Prim Neo reports, quoting the Government’s press service. According to the press release, Irina Vardanyan told Vlad Filat that after her husband was arrested she did not have the possibility of seeing him. The lawyer either does not have access to him. “We need legal assistance. I hope they will accept a Russian lawyer if they do not want a Moldovan one,” she said. Vlad Filat said the Moldovan authorities are monitoring the case and made a series of requests to the diplomatic corpse and the participants in the Transnistrian conflict settlement process, asking that they help set the journalist free. Ernest Vardanyan was arrested on April 7. Three days later, a court in Tiraspol extended the warrant for his arrest for two months. He is accused of betraying the state and spying for Moldova and is liable to up to 20 years in jail.