Maidan

Annex 1

Observations made by members of the Consultative Council for the Prevention of Torture (OPCAT National Preventive Mechanism) on the visit to the penitentiary institution No.13, Chişinău, on 11 April 2009

Penitentiary institution No.13 had received 68 detainees on 9 April and 22 detainees on 10 April.

The overwhelming majority of detainees were between 18 – 23 years old, allegedly with no prior criminal record.

Many detainees were allegedly processed through district police stations prior to being further processed through the General Police Commissariat and then on to penitentiary institution No.13. Through the initial two processing points, detainees were allegedly beaten, both in and outside of investigation rooms by plain-clothed law enforcement officers.

Evidence as to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment was abundantly evident with regard to the majority of those interviewed. Detainees described beatings, administered using clubs, full, plastic water bottles, fists and feet. Video images of injuries sustained are available. All detainees claimed that not only they were beaten but that they had witnessed others also being beaten.

One group of detainees referred to two badly beaten women currently being held at the General Police Commissariat. The Consultative Council for the Prevention of Torture have still not been granted access to verify these allegations.

Detainees also claimed that they had been held in inhuman conditions with 25 – 28 individuals in a single cell, measuring 8 metres square and that they were denied food for 2 days and only had limited access to water and basic sanitary facilities.

A small number of detainees said that they had been forced to sign confessions, and/or other documents, which they were not allowed to read.

Detainees were brought before a judge in groups of 6 and were collectively charged although each had been given an individual charge sheet through a template document (copies of these template documents are available). At no point were the detainees granted access to a lawyer.

A list provided by penitentiary institution No.13 identifies 246 detainees and states where they will be detained. Those originating from the north of Moldova will be imprisoned in the south of the country and vice versa.

Annex 2

List of individual cases. Further information on all these cases is available.

• On 12 April Unimedia.md (http://unimedia.md/?mod=news&id=10309) and Jurnal TV (http://jurnal.md/article/13863/) published information about the death of a 23-year old man, Valeriu Boboc, in police custody. The victim’s brother stated that although the victim died on 7 April, the family was only informed on 10 April. The family and the lawyer noted that the victim’s body was covered in bruises while the official medical report cites the cause of death as intoxication from unknown gas during the violence on 7 April.

• On 10 April, at approximately 19.30, two lawyers witnessed police severely beating 2 people in front of the Criuleni Police Commissariat, who had been brought there by bus. The beatings stopped after the lawyers called the General Prosecutor’s office, but all the individuals were then taken inside the police station. To date, no further information about their status has been made available.

• On 10 April several lawyers were unable to ascertain the whereabouts of their clients, whose initial detention terms were expiring. The lawyers were supposed to be representing their clients during pre-trial arrest hearings or hearings about administrative detention. One lawyer waited for 3 hours in court only to find out later that the judge had left through the back door and held hearings directly in a police commissariat. Although hearings outside the court accord with the Criminal Procedure Code, information must be made public about the time and place of the hearing and all fair trial guarantees must be upheld. Since Moldova declared independence in 1991, there have been no registered cases of hearings being held outside the court.

• Eight students have claimed that they were taken during a break at university and were severely beaten upon arrest and during detention in Chişinău. Two of them told their lawyer that they were forced to sign three documents stating: 1) they participated in the protests of 7 April; 2) they will not participate in future protests; 3) they were not beaten/ no force was used against them while in detention. Several lawyers confirmed that their clients were forced to sign similar documents.

• Parents and pupils from Chişinău and Orhei reported that police have been to senior schools, checking attendance registers, and detained some older pupils (from 11 and 12 classes, aged 17-18) directly from the schools. Two lawyers have stated that their clients, who are minors, showed clear signs of having been beaten.

• The media has reported several cases where people have been severely beaten upon arrest or while in detention in Chişinău. In one case a 23-year old Moldovan student, who studies in France, was severely beaten by police after being arrested for participating at the protests on 7 April. He claims he was only a witness during the protests and believes he was followed by police because he was translating for some Swedish journalists during the protests. He further stated that he believes he escaped death after informing the police he was a French citizen (information in Romanian and pictures available at: http://www.jurnaltv.md/?article=2041).

• The mother of one arrested man stated that her son was severely beaten while in police custody. His lawyer complained about the beatings, after which the man was beaten again because of his lawyer’s complaint. Another lawyer stated that his clients were scared to say they had been beaten, particularly as the interview with the lawyer took place in very close proximity to a police officer. The clients, trembling, said that they were beaten “only a bit”, but that others have suffered much more.

• Many of those being detained, are charged under Article 285 (1) or (2) of the Criminal Code (mass disorder), which carries a sentence of 3 to 7 years’ imprisonment. Others are charged under Article 164 of the Code of Administrative Offences (medium hooliganism), which is punishable with a fine or administrative arrest of up to 15 days.

• Ordinary people that participated in the protests on 7 April, and are currently being sought by police, report being too afraid to appear before police for the fear of being subjected to torture and inhuman treatment.

• One man who was detained, and released the next day, stated that while being interviewed, police had checked his personal information using the internal database of the Ministry of Information Development.