Tiraspol refuses to release political prisoners from the penitentiaries on the left of the Nistru, Oleg Serebrian
Tiraspol is not at all open to respect human rights, said the Deputy Prime Minister for Reintegration, Oleg Serebrian, at the hearing in the Parliament of the Annual Report on the respect of human rights and freedoms in the Republic of Moldova. Oleg Serebrian referred to the people detained in the penitentiaries on the left side of the Nistru. The official says that the Chisinau authorities insistently request their release, but Tiraspol instead requests things that the constitutional authorities cannot assume.
"They are definitely being held illegally for political reasons. Their unconditional release is demanded. The problem is that Tiraspol always demands something in return, and we are not willing to go to such exchanges, because they create unhealthy premises for the perpetuation of these patterns in the future. We constantly tackle the issue of the so-called law to combat extremism in the Transnistrian region, and also during the recent visit of the OSCE President, but it is a topic that our external partners neglect. They often bring us as a topic of discussion the so-called separatism law, in fact the amendments to the Penal Code, but they forget that this comes in a way as a reply to the law on combating extremism adopted in Tiraspol, under which Ermurachi, Plešcanov and others are also detained. So, for us, it is very important that that law be annulled, because under it more people are likely to be convicted or have already been convicted."
According to the Promo-LEX Association, Mihail Ermurachi and Victor Pleșcanov are two of the more than 1,800 prisoners who are in the penitentiaries on the left side of the Nistru, based on illegal decisions.
We remind you that the civic activist Victor Plescanov was sentenced by an illegal court in Tiraspol to three years and two months in prison for his critical position towards the self-proclaimed authorities in the Transnistrian region.
With the invasion of Ukraine by Russia on February 24, 2022, he criticized the abuses committed by the Russian army. Mihail Ermurachi, 74, was illegally sentenced to three years and six months in prison for insulting the so-called "leader" of the region and denying the role of the Nistru peacekeeping mission.
