October 29: This was announced by the leader of the opposition party Red Bloc and former deputy Grigory Petrenko on Wednesday, October 28, after the court of Riscani sector in Chisinau, Moldova, decided to extend his arrest for 45 days, along with his comrades.
“We will seek justice. We will appeal the decision to the Appeals Chamber. We are ready to go to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in search of truth,” Grigory Petrenko declared in court.
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| Grigory Petrenko gives his statement in court, Oct. 28. Photo by Alexandr Gutovski |
The politician added that he does not recognize their guilt, because “this is a political case, fabricated on the orders of [oligarch Vlad] Plahotniuc.”
“On September 6, we were peacefully protesting. We have that right under the Constitution. We did not destroy, there were no victims, only some ‘suggestions’ about scrapes and bruises that we did not inflict on those who suppressed the protest.
“The client for this case against us is Plahotniuc, but nobody, not even Plahotniuc, can take away our right to protest,” said Petrenko.
According to him, “The protest on September 6 demanded the return of the stolen billion and punishment of those responsible. And today, those who demanded the return of the stolen billion and punishment of all those responsible are under arrest, while the perpetrators are at large; moreover, some even administer justice.
“They want to shut our mouths and intimidate the whole opposition, to stop them from coming out to protest. But they will not succeed; they will not be able to shut up everyone! We will continue to fight. Plahotniuc, Shore and the other culprits in the seizure of our country will go to jail!” said Petrenko.
On Wednesday, October 28, contrary to the demands of Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) deputies for the immediate release from detention of all the political prisoners, led by former deputy Grigory Petrenko, the Riscani Court decided to extend their arrest.
Judge Denis Bebeleu granted the request of Prosecutor Nicu Şendrea to extend the preventive arrest of political prisoners Grigory Petrenko, Mikhail Amerberg and Pavel Grigorchuk for another 45 days. The period starts on November 5, and thus the members of the opposition party Red Bloc will remain in custody until December 20.
At the same time, the judge decided to extend the arrest of the other four political prisoners for 30 days: Alexander Roshko, Oleg Buzni, Andrey Druz and Vladimir Zhurat.
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