Moldova political prisoners kept in jail with no trial

Valeriu Pasat: The victim of a "Soviet-style political trial," says a former Pentagon and U.S. State Department official

CHISINAU (Tiraspol Times) - After Tiraspol released the last two prisoners which Moldova had called "political prisoners", Moldova is failing to do the same.

Two opposition politicians are still languishing in Chisinau jails, awaiting trial while their health is failing. Both of them have been defended by U.S. State Department officials, but to no avail.

In one case, an opposition politician and human rights lawyer from the Gagauz minority was arrested on trumped-up charges and is held incommunicado. Ivan Burgudji had sought safe haven in Tiraspol, Pridnestrovie, but was taken into Moldovan custody by armed men as he left the unrecognized country to vote in an election in Comrat, Moldova, last year.

Meanwhile, another member of the opposition - Valeriu Pasat - is also kept in Moldovan jail as a political prisoner. E. Wayne Merry, a former State Department and Pentagon official, has publicly called the Pasat case "a travesty of justice".

" - This Soviet-style political trial was in reality designed to squelch political opposition," says E. Wayne Merry, while also calling all charges against Pasat "entirely bogus."

" - This is a reprisal against an absolutely innocent man. The case has no relation to law - whatsoever," agreed Leonid Gozman, a board member of RAO EES, Pasat's current employer, who called the case against Pasat "an absolutely political affair."

" - We were convinced that the Moldovan authorities would not dare commit such lawlessness. Well, we underestimated the Moldovan authorities. We underestimated the extent to which they apparently spit on the law, on morale, and on the world public opinion", Gozman said.

Valeriu Pasat, political prisoner in Moldova

Leonid Gozman believes that the Pasat trial, which so far has dragged out for more than two years, "speaks of a severe situation in the field of legal defense and judicial system in Moldova as a whole".

" - If Pasat - a former Minister of the Moldovan Government, a former Moldovan Ambassador to Russia, and the Adviser to the President of one of the largest corporations in the world - has been kept in custody in fact without a trial for a third year by now, then what the authorities are able to do to a person having no such backing? I think - everything", said Leonid Gozman.

" - Sooner of later this Moldovan justice farce will come to an end, and we will apply for justice with Strasbourg. I presume one of the reasons of such a demonstrative dragging of the case is that the Moldovan authorities realize they are going to lose the case in Strasbourg - quickly and irreversibly. So they would not let the case completion on the level of the Moldovan justice system, being aware that the European Court of Human Rights accepts applications only upon completion of all legal stages at home. But we shall be in Strasbourg one day, and we shall win this case"

The original "Soviet-style politicial trial", in the word's of former Pentagon official E. Wayne Merry, sentenced Pasat to 10 years in a penal colony. His lawyers are saying Pasat is in a bad condition after a third hunger strike which he initiated as a protest against his prosecution for political reasons.

Although Pasat has appealed, the court has refused to hear his case. Moldova's General Prosecutor's Office has demanded that the judgment of the Sectorul Centru Court of Chisinau remain unchanged, giving Pasat 10 years in jail.

Ivan Burgudji persecuted for political beliefs

Ivan Burgudji was arrested as he went to cast his vote in Gagauzia's December 2006 elections for governor. A leading figure in the Gagauz community, he had urged voters to cast their vote for the opposition and not endorse the candidate supported by Moldova's Communist Party President Vladimir Voronin. No warrant was presented and no formal charges were pressed at the time of his detention.

Ivan Burgudji: Not the first time he is the victim of torture and arbitrary arrest. The last time it happened, the U.S. intervened but to no avail.

The irregular arrest - which a local Gagauz witness likened to a "kidnapping" - took place in Ciadir-Lunga, the second largest city of Gagauzia and Ivan Burgudji's birthplace. Representatives of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, OSCE, were unable to prevent the arrest or secure the release of Burgudji.

This is not the first time that Ivan Burgudji has been the target of arbitrary arrests and torture. The United States raised his case in the OSCE Permanent Council in Vienna over a similar 2002 incident when he was "taken into custody, held incommunicado, and presented with an arrest warrant only after the fact," according to the U.S. State Department.

These actions "do not meet our definition of the Rule of Law or basic international standards for the rights of the accused," said Deputy U.S. Chief of Mission to the OSCE Douglas Davidson.

Despite U.S. intervention, Moldova continued the practice. Ivan Burgudji's health is deteriorating and family members fear that he will die while in illegal custody.

On 2 June and 4 June 2007, Transdniester's authorities released the last two remaining prisoners which Moldova claimed had been jailed for political reasons. Romanian/Moldovan unification nationalists Andrei Ivantoc and Tudor Petrov-Popa had previously been convicted for their role in the murders of two PMR state officials. (With information from Infotag)

See also:
» Human rights activist jailed in Moldova; radio station silenced
» Human rights leader: "Elections in Gagauzia (Moldova) contrast badly with Transdniestria's"

On the web:
» An interview with Ivan Burgudji’s lawyer
» America Abandons a Friend