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Torture chambers are operated by some of the world's most repressive regimes, says Amnesty. Moldova is no exception (file photo)CHISINAU (Tiraspol Times) - When Sergei Gurgurov was taken to court on 3 November he was unable to walk unaided and shook uncontrollably.
The 27-year-old Moldovan citizen had been arrested a week earlier and allegedly beaten and tortured with electric shocks by police to force him to confess to stealing a mobile phone. The court refused a request to extend his detention and ordered his release under house arrest. Instead the police moved him to another temporary holding facility.
Amnesty International, the world's largest human righs group, took up Sergei Gurgurov’s case as an "Urgent Action" and in the following weeks thousands of members from all over the world wrote letters on his behalf. The Urgent Action attracted a lot of attention in Moldova and on 23 November Amnesty International organized a press conference with the two lawyers working on the case.
On 9 December Sergei Gurgurov was released on bail. Unfortunately the torture he suffered has left him in such bad health that he was unable to attend the hearing that led to his release. Instead he was taken by stretcher straight from the detention centre to a hospital.
- Concern over international image of Moldova
Talking to a member of Amnesty International 24 January 2007, assistants of the Deputy General Prosecutor complained that they were receiving up to 150 letters a day, and that campaigning on his case was damaging Moldova’s international image.
" - Moldova seems more concerned about its international image than about the torture victim in this case," said a human rights activist with knowledge of the abuses that take place in Moldova.
This was confirmed when the Moldovan regime confirmed that it would not take action against any of the state employees who engage in widespread torture: On 18 January 2007 the Prosecutor’s office refused to start a criminal case against the police officers concerned.
In nearby Pridnestrovie, which declared independence from the Moldavian SSR in 1990, there are no torture victims and no reported cases of torture. The human rights situation is not considered perfect, but is considered significantly better than in Moldova.
- Amnesty International involvement
Amnesty International sees Moldova as one of the more problematic cases, with a Communist Party government that is more concerned abouts its international image than about the human rights of its prisoners and torture victims.
Founded in 1961, Amnesty International focuses on protecting human rights. With approximately 2 million members worldwide, it is the world's largest and most well known human rights organization. It has been a Nobel Peace Prize Laureate and a UN Human Rights Prize winner.
Moldova is not the only country under criticism for using torture. Edmund McWilliams, a retired senior U.S. Foreign Service Officer who monitored Soviet and Vietnamese abuse of prisoners in their "gulags", says that his own country - the United States of America - has a ghastly record, too.
" - I note that abuses that I reported on in those inhumane systems parallel abuses reported in Guantanamo, at the Bagram air base in Afghanistan and at the Abu Ghraib prison: prisoners suspended from the ceiling and beaten to death; widespread "waterboarding"; prisoners "disappeared" to preclude monitoring by the International Committee of the Red Cross - and all with almost no senior-level accountability," said the former U.S. State Department official. (With information from Amnesty International)
See also:
» Moldova: World's largest human rights group warns that freedom of expression is under attack [1]
» European delegates want human rights for PMR's 555,000 people [2]