In particular, the head of the Supreme Council staff, Sergey Belous, who headed for several years an expert working group on crime control, noted that contacts between Pridnestrovian and Moldovan experts in this sphere resemble to a larger extent «the story of losses rather than the elaboration of positive solutions”, the MFA press office reports.
«Despite the readiness and openness of the Pridnestrovian side to cooperate with the Moldovan colleagues on practical matters and, what is more, to voluntarily fulfil its part of agreed obligations, we do not see anything similar on the part of our partners,” he underscored.
According to him, at a certain stage only Pridnestrovie began to provide operative information on incidents, wanted criminals and emergencies, «which seemed to be unchallenged by the Moldovan delegation”. «On average, up to 70 Moldovan residents wanted by Moldova’s law enforcement agencies are detained in Pridnestrovie each year. According to the Pridnestrovian law, these persons were handed over to Moldova, whereas Moldova has not ever detained any person wanted in Pridnestrovie,” said Sergey Belous.
Speaking about the criminal prosecution of Pridnestrovian citizens on politically motivated charges, Belous recalled the audience that «Moldova has been employing this instrument of pressure on Pridnestrovian society since the very establishment of the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic”. «Moldova has never abandoned this practice, which has been chiefly applied to Pridnestrovian law enforcers, from the leadership to ordinary officers,” he said.
«A typical accusation against a former minister of internal affairs sounds like that: «being the so-called minister of internal affairs, he fulfilled regulatory functions in the law enforcement sphere and thus usurped the power”. In this way, the very fact of a Pridnestrovian citizen holding a post in the law enforcement sphere is deemed as a crime by the Moldovan side,” stated Sergey Belous.
The first deputy chairman of the Investigation Committee, Vasily Kovach, also noted the fact that to date the significant number of politically motivated criminal charges have been filed by Moldova against Pridnestrovians for fulfilling their duties. This fact, according to the IC official, may have a very negative potential as there is no cooperation between law enforcement agencies even on offenses under ordinary law. «There have been many cases recently when criminal cases are initiated against certain persons for no other reason than fulfilling their duties on complaints filed by Moldovan citizens, including «criminal elements',” underscored Vasily Kovach.
At the same time, as was emphasised during the meeting, today Moldova is prosecuting not only law enforcers, but also businessmen and ordinary citizens. Thus, according to Sergey Belous, four acting Supreme Council deputies are still facing politically motivated charges. In this way, according to briefing participants, Moldova is trying to outlaw any activity in Pridnestrovie.
As was noted by a Pridnestrovian member of the Joint Control Commission, head of the Main Inspectorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Konstantin Kalinenok, by using such methods, running counter to agreements within the negotiation process, Moldova aims to threaten Pridnestrovian citizens.
«The activities by the Moldovan colleagues is illogic and resemble a chain of contradictions. The temporary provision on law enforcement activity is in effect in the Security Zone, which clearly determines the sides' obligations and establishes jurisdictions. Moreover, each side is performing law enforcement activity in its territory. Therefore, any sensible person clearly sees the motives of the Moldovan side when criminal charges are brought against Pridnestrovians for fulfilling their official duties,” he declared.
The acting foreign minister, Vitaly Ignatyev, in turn, said that the problem of politically motivated prosecution against Pridnestrovians is running through many spheres of the dialogue between Pridnestrovie and Moldova. However, Moldova’s approaches to this issue «resemble a certain imitation”. According to the diplomat, Pridnestrovie expects the Moldovan side to take a realistic position at last on this very sensitive issue and show readiness for a substantive dialogue to solve the problem of politically motivated criminal prosecution.
