​OHM ACTIVISTS TO STAY BEHIND BARS FOR 30 MORE DAYS

On Friday, the judge of the Sectorul Riscani Court of Chisinau, Anatolie Galben, has extended for 30 more days the arrest of “Our Home is Moldova” (OHM) party leader Grigore Petrenco and seven party activists, as was demanded by the prosecution.

According to the OHM lawyer Roman Aronov, the prosecutor’s extension motivation was as follows: the ‘Petrenco group’ may well provoke mass disturbances, or may ruin evidence, or may press on witnesses.

“What disturbances does he mean? According to his logic, it is possible to catch any citizen in the street and say you must sit in prison because you may provoke mass disturbances. His accusations are absurd and unfounded”, stated the defender.

In his opinion, all elements of a police state can be seen in the present-day Moldova with a naked eye.

“The presumption of innocence is replaced with the presumption of guilt – to make citizens afraid of thinking, protesting, expressing opinions freely. Innocent people are kept in custody, while criminals, known to everybody, are at large, giggling and rubbing hands”, said the lawyer.

Anna Ursachi, another OHM lawyer, said that “despite the address sent to Chisinau by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, whose deputies demanded an immediate release of the political prisoners, including indeed Grigore Petrenco [who is member of the previous Moldovan Parliament and an ex-Deputy Chairperson of the Unified European Left group in the PACE], the Chisinau court does not care. The reason is well-known: the justice sphere in Moldova is owned by oligarch Vlad Plahotniuc”.

It is noteworthy that today the Sectorul Riscani Court of Chisinau was surrounded by a dense ring of policemen armed with submachine guns and pistols. Court Chairman Oleg Melniciuc decided not to let the suspects’ relative or the press to the courtroom, though the session was an open one.

Before the reading out of the court decision for the Petrenco group, lawyer Vitalie Nagacevschi, the Head of the Lawyers for Human Rights Association, appeared near the courthouse on his luxurious Land Rover and was immediately hissed off and catcalled by the suspects’ relatives and supporters: Nagacevschi has many a time defended the interests of Plahotniuc in courts and other situations.

As already reported by Infotag, on September 6, OHM Chairman Grigore Petrenco and seven OHM activists were arrested for 30 days “for organization of unrest”. On that day, they brought tens of their supporters for an action of protest before the Prosecutor General’s Office. The police did not let them approach the Office doors. A noisy scuffle broke out, in which 6 cops were slightly injured. The Ministry of the Interior put the entire responsibility for the incident on the protesters. But their lawyers are insisting on the opposite scenario.