Press Release
Council of Europe anti-torture Committee interrupts visit to
the Transnistrian region of Moldova
Strasbourg, 30.07.2010 – A delegation of the Council of Europe's Committee
for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT)
began a visit to the Transnistrian region (*) of Moldova on 21 July 2010.
Against the background of the CPT’s reports on its previous visits to the region
in 2000, 2003 and 2006, the intention of the delegation was to review the
situation of persons deprived of their liberty in police and prison
establishments.
Following initial consultations with Sergey STEPANOV, the person responsible in
the region for justice-related issues, the CPT’s delegation commenced a visit to
the remand section (SIZO) of Colony No. 3 in Tiraspol on 22 July 2010. However,
the delegation was informed that, unlike the Committee’s previous visits, it
would not be allowed to interview remand prisoners in private. Such a
restriction contradicts one of the fundamental characteristics of the preventive
mechanism embodied by the CPT, namely the power to interview in private any
person deprived of his or her liberty. Consequently, the Committee’s delegation
decided to interrupt its visit to places of deprivation of liberty in the region
until such time as the enjoyment of this power could be guaranteed.
Nevertheless, the CPT’s delegation visited Penitentiary establishments Nos. 8
and 12 in Bender; these establishments are located in an area controlled by the
de facto authorities of the Transnistrian region but form part of the prison
system of the Republic of Moldova. The opportunity was also taken to review the
treatment of persons detained by the Moldovan police. In this context, the
delegation paid follow-up visits to Temporary detention isolators in Anenii Noi
and Bender, as well as to the Temporary detention isolator of the General Police
Directorate in Chişinău. Further, the delegation interviewed in private a number
of newly-arrived remand prisoners at Chişinău Penitentiary establishment No. 13
on the subject of their treatment by the police.
At the end of the visit, the CPT's delegation had a meeting with Alexandru
TĂNASE, Minister of Justice of the Republic of Moldova, and senior officials of
the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Prosecution Service and the Department of
Penitentiary Institutions, and presented to them its preliminary observations.
The visit was carried out by the following members of the CPT:
- Jean-Pierre RESTELLINI (Swiss), Head of delegation
- Anna LAMPEROVÁ (Slovak)
- Joan Miquel RASCAGNERES (Andorran).
They were supported by Johan FRIESTEDT of the CPT's Secretariat, and assisted by
Jürgen SEIGER, Public Health Officer, Münster (Germany).
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(*) The Transnistrian region unilaterally declared itself an independent
republic in the early 1990s.
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