The relatives of Moldova citizen Mihai Lichii, who died in the Czech Republic in November 2022, are demanding from the RM authorities to thoroughly investigate into the reasons of the tragedy.   

Lawyer Marin Sardari stated at a press conference held at INFOTAG on Friday that there is every reason to doubt the version of a suicide being promoted by the police and prosecutors.

“The body was brought to the country, but no forensic medical examination was carried out, although this is clearly prescribed in Article 97 of the Code of Criminal Procedure. It is also mandatory to initiate a criminal case into any fact of death. Mihai was a cheerful person. The day before the tragedy, he spoke with his wife Ludmila via a video call, saying that he was going to treat his fellow countrymen on the occasion of the birthday of his grandson, who was one year old. He even made a few purchases. Is this possible if a person is preparing for death?” Sardari asked rhetorically, reminding that Lichii had two sons, and that his old mother was waiting for him at home.

The lawyer said that Mihai’s son Victor, who worked in Belgium in that period of time, visited the alleged place of his father’s death.

“He has many questions to the two fellow countrymen from the Soroca Raion who worked and lived next to his father. They found the body in the nearby forest, but informed the victim’s wife about this only after learning that his son had urgently left for the Czech Republic. They pointed to the tree on which Mihai had allegedly hanged himself. But Lichii weighed 85 kg, and the branch, on which he had allegedly hanged himself, was only 3 cm thick and was dry, and clearly couldn't bear the weight of the body. The fellow countrymen took the body to the local morgue. But there were knife cuts on the body and a break in the forehead. That was all discovered by the family when the body was delivered to Moldova. Where did these wounds come from? What else did your son notice? Coming out of the forest almost immediately after the death of his father, he stepped into the mud (it had been raining for a couple of days before that). But he found only sand on his father's shoes in the morgue. There were no strangulation injuries on the neck of Mihai Lichii, characteristic of those who hang themselves. All these discrepancies were not registered by the police and prosecutors in Soroca. They generally refused to open a case of premeditated murder,” he said.

The lawyer considers it strange that the fellow countrymen who discovered the body did not photograph it.

“The law enforcement officers did not even take formal statements from them. Meanwhile, it is known that in the house where the Moldovan workers lived, some of them drank. But not Mihai. He was such a character that he could intervene into a conflict to restore justice, and could die,” Sardari believes.

The lawyer said that if the case does not move forward, then in April he will file a complaint against the inaction of the Moldovan authorities to the European Court of Human Rights, “which will most likely find the authorities guilty”.