“Our Home is Moldova” (OHM) party’s acting chairman Alexander Butovschii demands from the authorities the immediate release of the OHM party leader Grigore Petrenco and eight members of the party.

 

He said at the press conference that “the government is afraid of Petrenco and rallied around him civil society activists”.

 

“Petrenco and his companions were arrested during the peaceful picket outside the Prosecutor General’s Office on September 6. We are confident that scuffle, in which our colleagues were involved, was provoked. Now the OHM leader and the activists are detained. The Chisinau Appeals Court meeting, where lawyers tried to challenge the measure, passed behind closed doors. Such tough measures, applied to the activists, are extra evidence that authorities are afraid. There is a special task namely for Petrenco – to put him in jail for a long period of time”, said Butovschii.

 

He noted that the remaining free members of the OHM are under pressure from the authorities.

 

“Police calls people “to talk”, arrange searches in apartments and houses. Once the party activists go on picket, the police come with searches to the party central office. The practice thrives especially in the north of Moldova and in Balti town”, said the OHM acting chairperson.

 

His colleague Mihail Smolenco read out the basic requirements of the OHM to the authorities, including the return of stolen billion of euro from the troubled banks, arrest of businessman Vlad Plahotniuc, recognition of the DPM an organized criminal group, as well as the holding of early parliamentary elections.

 

The conference participants said that the OHM members will continue the pressure on the government, and will treat official letters to the European and international organizations accredited in Chisinau, about the “intolerant behavior against those arrested Petrenco and his colleagues from the party”.